Hello
Seabirds are gradually returning to the Shetland Islands. At Sumburgh Head, puffins, guillemots and razorbills are back and forth. It'll be a couple of weeks before they are seen more regularly on land. Bonxies (great skuas) are increasing in number each day, and we'll be keeping our eyes to the skies for the return of Arctic skuas and Arctic terns (I can feel my pulse rising just thinking about the terns!). I can never tire of watching Shetland's seabirds, from the tiny nocturnal storm petrels to the great gregarious gannets. Seabirds are so impressive and inspiring, whether they are flying through gale force winds or sitting on calm seas coloured by sunset. Now, thanks to a spot of technology, we can watch puffins underground. Yes - puffincam is back!
Last year, watched by some 90,000 people around the globe, our pair of puffins successfully reared their chick. There were many memorable moments, like when the chick hatched or perhaps you can remember the ASBO puffin which attacked the helpless chick. Over winter, it has been heartening to hear how many people enjoyed tuning into puffincam, from local school families to a dental practice in Germany. Well, our puffin pair have returned - only briefly mind you, but I can't tell you how super it felt to see their image in the burrow. You can watch the first sighting of them here, thanks to our partners at Promote Shetland. Then there's two birds in this clip. I've put up a couple of posts on the RSPB Community Shetland Group blog, so you can have a look there to see how we set up the camera, and we'll soon have the live feed on the RSPB website.
Last weekend was the annual event "Da Voar Redd Up," organised by Shetland Amenity Trust. Thousands of local volunteers put on their rubber gloves and gather up the rubbish along roadsides and beaches. Da Voar Redd Up (which means "The Spring Clean") was started by the Unst Community Council over twenty years ago, and has been a massive success. It's a brilliant initiative, illustrating how much our community cares about the environment. Of course, we all look forwards to the day that we don't have to do it, as it would mean litter pollution was no longer an issue. Until such a day, every spring you will see mountains of green bags gathered up at the end of beaches for collection and disposal.
Do keep on returning to this blog and the Shetland Blog for puffincam updates and other news. Better still - come and visit us at Sumburgh Head! Our Date With Nature is open daily from 23 May until 15 August, where Rebeca and Newton will be able to help show you the seabirds and share their stories.
Here's hoping for a successful breeding season for all our seabirds.