Current Work

Reserve Officer for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on the Island of Unst, Shetland.

May

The most noticable thing this month, apart from the incredible weather, is the increasing day length. Already it is light in the middle of the night, and we are still a few weeks away from the solstice. The flowers are blooming too, Marsh Marigolds, Spotted Heath Orchids, Early Purple Orchids, Edmontons Chickweed (Shetland Mouse-ear), Norwegian Sandwort, Thrift etc.

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Norwegian Sandwort	Edmonton's Chickweed	Close up of the Chickweed flower
Early Purple Orchid	Early Purple Orchid

Sundews have appeared, and so have the leaves of Butterwort. These are possibly some of my favourite plants, not only do they grow in boggy upland places (that I like) they also eat insects which can only be good.

Sundew	Muckle Flugga	Seals basking

St Ninians Isle
	Saab 340 at Edinburgh Airport	Suburgh Airport from Sumburgh Head

During May one of my very good friends from University (Woody) got married on the Llyn Peninsula. To get there was quite an expedition! I had to leave here on Thursday, and spent the day at the south end of the mainland, exploring St Ninians Isle, Spiggie Loch and Sumburgh head. Stopping overnight with friends I then flew from Sumburgh at 7:30am, to Edinburgh, the flight was so quick and convenient it was great, and on a small Saab 340. I then hired a car an drove the 6hrs to Bangor in North Wales. It was lovely to see big trees and mountains! The weekend was great, very relaxed and enjoyable, even had time for a walk on Abersoch beach.

Looking at the Cliffs from the Neap	Cliffs at the Neap, covered in thousands of Gannets	Gannet colony monitorring plot

The cliffs are alive with activity now, Gannets are nesting along with Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Fulmars, Puffins, Shags, the odd pair of Ravens and Blackbirds too. Above you can see the Number of Gannets on the Cliffs at the Neap, and also closeup of part of the colony used for monitorring the productivity of the Gannets.

There was a bit of excitement which initially surprised me about a Great Tit I found at a local birding hotspot, I was looking for a Wryneck at the time. To put things in perspective there were only 6 Great Tit sightings in 2006, and that was a good year.

Just further North East of Mckle Flugga is a lump of rock called Out Stack, which is the furthest North part of the UK. It's just off the top of the OS map in the margin, in it's own 10km square. Some people like to visit every 10km square in the UK, so Out Stack is an interesting island to get to!

Female Great Tit I found which caused a bit of excitement, they are rare up here	Gannet	Muckle Flugga and Out Stack
Close up of a Puffin	Puffin amongst Thrift	Puffin in flight
Arctic Skua pair	Arctic Skua	Dunlin

Puffins are possibly one of the most popular birds on the British coast, and people are always asking about them, and dissapointed if they are feeding at sea rather than sitting pretty on the clifftop. There are a few Arctic Skuas hanging around, and also waders too such as Golden Plover and Dunlin.