Today feels like a spring day, with a cool air, bright sun, gentle breeze and similar daylight length. What a very different experience greets the September visitor compared to May. The only seabirds to be seen on the Sumburgh Head cliffs today were shags, fulmars and a couple of herring gulls. I notice at this time of year, some birds start displaying again. I believe it is a response to the daylight length, being similar to that of spring. I hear the weekend is to be calm, but strong winds are forecast for next week. I wonder if they shall blow in any unusual visitors?
The news of a tufted puffin down south has had me scanning the seas. Not a puffin to be seen. I met a couple from the USA at the Sumburgh Head reserve yesterday. They were hoping to see puffins, but got their timings wrong. They did however find a puffin on their coastal walk to the reserve, albeit in quite a state of the decay! In an effort to console them, I directed them towards Mousa Sound and Quendale Bay for the chance of seeing porpoises. Jenny, our administrator, saw around a hundred porpoises (or neesiks as they are known here) in Quendale, and I'd seen a very active group of twenty or so at Mousa. Neesik, I think, means "Sneezer" in Old Norse, on account of the animal sounding like it's sneezing when it comes to the surface for breath.
Before I go, I have to mention my encounter the other night - nothing to do with birds. Thanks to our Field Teacher Linda, I have been learning how to SCUBA dive. In the evening, we went for a dive off of Lerwick (Shetland's capital). I greatly enjoyed kelp forests, sea urchins, dead man's fingers, and various fish species. As we surface swam back to the boat, something greyish caught my eye, just a few feet beneath me. It was getting quite dark and difficult to see and I thought it first to be seaweed and my eyes playing tricks. It twisted and turned, and then I realised there were two eyes, a mouth, limbs... it was a seal! Well, I let out an almighty girly squeaky scream (even with the breathing aparatus in my mouth!) and found out that seals can hear you scream underwater as it disappeared. It surfaced behind me, and I am pretty sure I heard it laughing at me.