Hiyi
This morning, I ended up squealing excitedly down the phone to Andy Steven, from our Puffincam partners Promote Shetland. He'd just told me that the puffins had been back in the burrow. Andy's edited the footage and popped it here on YouTube, so you too can see the first sighting of our unsuspecting pair of puffins. I assume it is the same pair as last year, but we've no way of telling for sure. I am proper chuffed with the angle of the camera and the quality of the picture. So, a massive thanks to Promote Shetland and Northlink (who have sponsored Puffincam, allowing us to share the images with the world). Also, a big thanks must go to all the folk who support the RSPB. WIthout you, there would be no puffincam, so a heartfelt thanks from us all here in the Shetland Office.
The puffins are not back at Sumburgh Head reserve full time just yet, still spending considerable time out to sea. Newton's outside painting and has seen as many sand martins today as he has puffins (that'd be one!). It's a lovely time of year to be in Shetland, with migrant birds returning and I'm sure the grass has grown noticably longer over the weekend. I look forwards to May though, when the cliffs are teeming with life and the sea pinks and spring squill add to the colour.
On Friday, we went to Mousa, and made our first visit of 2011 to Britain's Biggest Bird Box - Mousa Broch. It's such an amazing building, still standing 2000+ years since it was built. It is great that people can still climb the stairs and see a similar view that our Iron Age ancestors saw. I wonder what they would make of Shetland today? In a few weeks, the broch will start smelling of petrel, as the stormies return. I cannot recommend highly enough Tom's trips to Mousa at night time. Visit www.mousaboattrips.co.uk to get the details. I'm not quite sure where storm petrels are right now. They winter off of South Africa, so they're somewhere between Mousa and Cape Town!
Mousa was bright, breezy and beautiful. There was a fair few bonxies and wheatears on the reserve, four mergansers were posing on the East Pool, and the songs of skylarks and meadow pipits filled the air. Usually, I am delighted to be on Mousa, but on this day I had to give a teenage-like sigh of disappointment. I received a text from Brydon Thomason, telling me killer whales had been spotted at Sumburgh Head, heading north. That's the second near miss that we've had in days. Not only had we just left Sumburgh an hour or so before they were spotted, but the chances are that they passed Mousa on the west whilst we were on the west. Another case of being in the right place but facing the wrong direction. Scunners!
Cheerio for noo
Helen