After yesterday's fairly quiet and wet day, a better, but not great weather forecast, meant we weren't sure what we wanted to do, Margie wanted to go back to Sumburgh to have a look around the museum, so we decided to head that way and see what we could find. Which is how we found ourselves at The Isle of St Ninians looking at the longest Tombolo in Britain! What's a Tombolo? I hear you ask, Well it's a sandy Isthmus joining an Island to the mainland, usually sand or shingle! Yes I googled it more info at the link😂
Tombolo
Anyway it is pretty impressive, Margie's pics of it below
We walked across the Tombolo. It's quite weird with the waves crashing both sides, one side the sea was rough, the other, really smooth, that side was quite cool as well, as the waves came in the wind took the tops and blew them the other way, giving a spectacular effect, not sure we captured effectively in our pics!
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| Margie's attempt |
Guess you had to be there!😀 Highlight for me of the walk across were the Arctic Terns which were feeding on both sides of the Tombolo, crossing it occasionally, giving the opportunity for me to the miss the pics😢
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| Arctic Tern |
We eventually reached the Isle, we decided to walk across, following the cliff, the scenery is fantastic, bird wise, Fulmars, seems in Shetland if there are cliffs then there are Fulmars, a few Wheatears and Starlings about the rest of it!
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| Wheatear on the edge! |
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| Fulmar |
The following showcase the scenery by Margie
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| Rabbit city, were a lot of Rabbits |
We walked back, a flock of Turnstones were feeding on the open grassland, however impossible to get close which was a shame as there were some lovely summer plumaged individuals amongst them, back across the Tombolo, a Great Northern Diver was feeding quite close in and I had another crack at the Terns with mixed results!!
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| Starlings on the cliffs |
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| Love these Lichen covered walls |
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| Couple of the Turnstones |
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| Arctic Tern |
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| Great Northern Diver |
There were a couple of Eiders, just off the car park, which was now full, so I think we had the best of it, we headed off, it was still fairly early, the museum didn't open til mid morning and with the weather better than expected we headed round to Loch Spiggie where had exceptional views of Turnstones which were much more co-operative than their Isle of St Ninians cousins, lots of Swallows over the water but they evaded the camera, we had a walk on Spiggie Beach. which had another Great Northern Diver just offshore.
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| Eider |
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| Turnstone |
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| Dandelions |
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| Flyover Bonxie, there is always a Bonxie |
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| There is usually a Wheatear as well!! |
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| Spiggie sand dunes by Margie |
We met a local birder here who was very helpful with information about various locations, so we decided to take his advice and head to the Pool of Virkie. Lots of waders on the sand flats, Dunlin, Barwits, Sanderling, Redshank, Ringed Plovers and plenty of Turnstones, which are everywhere!! While we sat in the car watching the birds, they suddenly took to the air on mass!! Looking around expecting a raptor, bombing through came 2 Arctic Skuas, 1 Pale Phase and 1 Dark Phase, could it be the pair I saw on Saturday ,unfortunately they went through so fast and the restrictive nature of taking pics from the car meant I didn't get a pic!!
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| Sanderling |
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| Bar-tailed Godwits, sadly distant |
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| Couple of Dunlin and a Sanderling |
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| This dunlin decided to get a bit bolshy and chased anything that moved |
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| Dunlin |
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| Sanderling |
Again following advice we headed around the corner to Grutness where a small pool attracted a lot of birds down to bathe especially the Common Gulls! I also found a Blackcap whoop, which is the only vagrant I've managed so far! Didn't get a pic of it though😢
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| Arctic Tern |
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| Redshank |
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| House Sparrow |
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| Common Gull, having a wash |
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| All done |
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| Arctic Tern |
This was a good little spot, next, again following the sage advice, we went round to West Voe, where despite the wind and distance involved we managed to find the flock of Long-tailed Duck we were advised were there, again the mixed pair of Arctic Skuas came bombing through attacked some Arctic Terns then just as quickly disappeared stage right!
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| Long-tailed Ducks |
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| Eider having a surf! |
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| Arctic Skua, not the frame filling shots like Saturday but they was on a mission! |
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| Margie got distracted by a Helicopter |
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| Sumburgh Head from West Voe beach by Margie |
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| West Voe Beach |
Excellent stuff, so we headed round to Sumburgh Head, where Margie paid for us to go in the museum. The walk up was much quieter today plenty of Fulmars and Auks, we saw plenty of Puffins in flight but none on the ground, we visited the museum, where I got in Margie's bad books by not spending enough time in the museum. Now as we know Margie is a fan of such places, me not so much, in my defence it wasn't a very big museum half of it was about the lifecycle of the ocean, which I already knew, the other half about the lighthouse was quite interesting but I'm a quick reader and quite frankly putting me in a museum which is 50 yards from one of the best birding places on the planet was a recipe for disaster!! To make matters worse the café was shut due to Covid shortages😢 Anyway I had a quick walk around the Twite performed well again and as we neared the car, in almost exactly the same spot as Saturday my Skuas appeared again (yes I've assumed ownership of the pair) another spectacular display, this time I concentrated my efforts on the dark phase bird, which is a stunner!
We headed back north stopping occasionally, had a nice cup of tea and a Pancake at Mackenzies café, didn't get a pic of the pancake but trust me it was tasty!
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| Nice chubby Seal |
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| Pair of Eider |
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| Shetland Moon |
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| Curlew |
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| Common Tern, not that Common up here! |
All in all another great day on Shetland, Margie eventually forgave me, lots of puppy eyes and tears, she told me to man up and stop blubbing, to be fair she did have a point, it wouldn't have killed me to show a bit of interest!! 😁
isle of st ninians. Tombolo. loch spiggie, vikie pool west voe back to sumburgh pancake
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