With news of a Wood Sandpiper at Loch Spiggie and with no other plans we decided to check it out, we didn't want too much of a strenuous day as we had the Mousa Boat Trip booked for later, We parked at the hide and scanned likely looking areas of beach and sand but to no avail, apparently was at the north end which I never did find!! Yes I know try the opposite end to the south end Ha blooming Ha😁!! Still we had passed a nice looking beach on the way in, so walked up the road to it and we weren't disappointed a beautiful place and out of the wind as well Hurrah! Well as much out of the wind as anything can be on Shetland at any rate!!😂
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Greylag Goose, lot's on Shetland largely ignored by me! |
Margie's Pics of the beach below
There were some Eiders in the bay, we had seen plenty around Shetland but these were the first ones we got close to, they showed quite well swimming close to the beach on occasion!
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| Eider Drake |
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| Having a Stretch |
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| Getting those hard to reach places |
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| Mr & Mrs or Miss, she may not have committed yet! |
Told you they showed quite well, reasonably pleased with some of them!! A very enjoyable session on the beach, lovely and sunny, the water was an amazing colour!
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| Blue Sea |
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| Looking back to Loch Spiggie by Margie |
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| Beach with added Hunk 😍 |
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| Beach without Hunk! |
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| Very peaceful and all to ourselves |
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| A view around Loch Spiggie |
There was a bit of excitement when a Bonxie flew in!
But apart from that was quiet apart from the lapping of the waves and the cooing & chattering of the Eider! (Margie thinks it sounds like they've just heard a juicy bit of gossip😂)
We headed back to the hide, quick diversion to check out Spiggie beach, equally as pretty but due to the wind direction not as pleasant, we were sandblasted!! Main interest what I think is a Common Seal just off shore, were a couple of Great Northern Divers as well but too distant for pictures!
When we were back at the hide I spotted a few waders distantly on a spit jutting into the loch, but they were not sandpipers they were Knot!! pics are terrible!
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| Knot on the beach |
After such a pleasant morning we thought we would nip to Sumburgh Head for Lunch at the Café, but on arrival at the Car Park, found a sign saying it was shut, at least the positioning of the sign meant we didn't have to walk to the top which was a relief!! I had a little play with the Fulmars and a Bonxie before we headed off again!
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| Fulmar |
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| Bonxie |
Check out that blue sky😁 We stopped briefly at Grutness in the hope of another rarity but the only thing out of the ordinary were a couple of Gadwall!
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| Gadwall |
So where to go? Yeah you've guessed it back to Clumlie!! Now I know what you are thinking, that I was becoming obsessed with trying to get a picture of the Long-tailed Skua and of course you would be right😲, however the Loch was fast becoming my favourite place on Shetland, so nice just to stand and watch the comings and goings of the Arctic Terns and Common Gulls as they bathe and squabble amongst themselves, listening to the Skylarks, Meadow Pipits, Curlew and Snipe that were singing and displaying all around, watching the Bonxies flying in across the lake to their washing spot, unfortunately right on the other side, with the chance of an Artic Skua or two coming in for a wash. You never lnow what is going to fly in, a brilliant place, we were also going to visit a Long House museum on the way but sadly it wasn't open😢!!
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| Clever use of a boat! |
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| The sadly closed Museum😢😂 |
Some of the birds that visited the Loch on this visit below!
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| Another Arctic Skua having a wash |
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| Still not popular with the Terns |
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| Mid-air shake dry |
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| And away |
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| Bonxie flying across the loch |
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| Black-tailed Godwit with 4 Oystercatchers |
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| Raven |
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| Raven |
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| Arctic Terns having a bath |
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| On Skua watch |
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| House Martin |
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| Arctic Terns |
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| Golden Plover |
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| Feisty Common Gull |
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| Swallow |
Another very pleasant couple of hours!! We left relatively early to get back for the Mousa Boat trip which was a fabulous experience, I blogged about that before and the report can be seen at the link below!!
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