Remembering Shetland

 No laptop at the moment, so no photos.

Last  weekend was spent at Blacktoft. Upto 10 species of waders present to keep visitors busy, although some had problems sorting out the green and wood sandpipers.

Thursday was a day out with Chris, slightly different to our usual  days out as we went in our own cars. I dropped the granddaughter off at the station so I arrived at Saltholme after Chris. I joined him in the Wildlife watchpoint, where he was sat hoping to see a water rail.

The water rail did not know we were waiting to see it so it stayed in the reeds. We then went to Greatham Creek in the hope of seeing whimbrel.

Lots of curlew, little egrets, lapwing, redshank, ringed plover and terns flying about. We then walked towards Seal Sands. Seals, more redshank and curlews. Chris found some black tailed godwits and then a peregrine landed on the sand and disturbed everything. We then returned to Saltholme to look for a water rail. I left Chris in the hide as I had seen water rails and young at Blacktoft. I called in at the Phil Stead.hide just in time to see three great white egrets.

I was in the area to visit Seaton Snook in the hope of seeing skuas. High tide was at 8pm so I arrived about 5pm. I was not sure where to go as I did not want to get cut off by the tide. So I turned right and followed the path towards the sound of terns. I was then distracted by the sight of 5 tugs towing in a rig. I watched them manoeuvre the rig upstream and then turned my attention to the birds. 

I was in the wrong spot, so walked across the sands to the shore. On the way a small group of ringed plover and dunlin dropped down in front of me. As I got close to the shore I saw arctic skuas chasing the terns. I saw three skuas, 1 light  phase and 2  dark phase. The skuas were flying around and when they had seen a tern plunge dive into the sea and catch a fish they would chase the tern. It reminded me of trips to Shetland. On one trip to Unst, Chris and I would sit eating breakfast while watching bonxies chase gannets Happy days.