Today is the longest day of the year. Stonehenge steals all the media limelight, but what’s going on at the opposite end of the country?
Just like every other day, our team is hard at work on Shetland, managing our nature reserves to give nature a home. Keeping an eye out for ‘pirates’ as he goes, Patrick Cook is our assistant warden on Fetlar – our northernmost reserve...
My fieldwork can begin very early here, especially when the ‘simmer dim’ comes into effect. Being so far north during mid-summer, there is constant light with the sun only dipping below the horizon for a few hours each night. This means you can enjoy a nice walk at midnight without the need for a torch as it never gets properly dark.
Return of the phalarope
I work on our northern Shetland reserves, particularly the island of Fetlar. On a still evening, several wader species can be seen and heard at once, including the lapwing, dunlin, ringed plover, oystercatcher and ‘drumming’ snipe, along with the haunting calls of the curlew and its smaller relation, the whimbrel. The island also provides homes for plenty of seabirds.
View of Fetlar from Yell
Being so far north, spring comes later to Shetland, with bright yellow marsh marigolds and pink orchids bringing some colour back to the northern isles. I'm also glad to see the return of the red-necked phalarope, a very rare breeder in the UK and one the RSPB works very closely with in the mires - areas of really wet ground found in basins that contain a mixture of open water and sedges.
The first phalaropes return in May with the females arriving before the males. With phalaropes, the gender roles are reversed - so the females try to attract the males and are more brightly-coloured.
Massive migrations
Our work to learn more about the phalaropes has two parts. The first is finding any birds that have returned with geolocators.
The geolocator is a tiny data-collecting device which the phalaropes wear like a miniature backpack. The birds spend most of their year far away from Shetland. The geolocator records information which lets us calculate where they’ve been – but we have to get the geolocators back so we can analyse it!
(in 2014 we found out that one of our Fetlar phalaropes had migrated all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back again, which wasn’t what we expected! So there’s much to learn)
Female red-necked phalarope
The second part of our work is estimating the number of breeding males. This is done by observing the male’s behaviour throughout the breeding season. First of all we determine if he is paired up, then if he is alone and acting frantically which indicate he is on a nest (the male phalaropes do all the incubation and raise the chicks). The final behaviour is alarm-calling when his chicks have hatched.
Working with and seeing phalaropes - such a beautiful and charismatic wader - at such close range is one of the definite perks of the job. We manage the phalaropes’ breeding mires to create the perfect mosaic of habitats, which provides everything they need to nest and raise their young.
From otters to bogs, bonxies and tirricks
Covering the northern isles of Shetland, we also work on Unst and Yell. This usually involves an early morning ferry when the northern light is at its greatest quality, stretching from horizon to horizon interrupted only by the jagged outline of the islands and skerries.
On a still day this can be a great time to see mother otters fishing with their cubs. This is a great treat at the start of the day and one of the reasons I was attracted to working in Shetland in the first place.
Watch out for flying pirates
A bonxie - or great skua
At the end of a day’s fieldwork, the melancholy call of the golden plover and the trill of the dunlin will be ringing in your ears. Another interesting call or wail that is often heard from the lochs on the blanket bog is that of the red-throated diver.
They are incredible, reptilian looking birds that lie close to the water. With a bright red eye and smart red throat patch, they are among the most beautiful of Shetland’s breeding birds.
Amongst other sounds to be heard throughout Shetland are the blunt calls of the bonxie, the mewing of the Arctic skua and the screech of the Arctic terns (or tirricks). Arctic skuas specialise in grabbing food from other birds, particularly Arctic terns. They are effectively the pirates of the bird world, so I guess part of my job description is surveying pirates!
Sadly the Arctic skua is in sharp decline, linked to the decline of the Arctic tern and the sandeels that underpin the food chain here.
That brings together a summary of some of what I do in Shetland. Many days end with a ferry trip home where there is always a possibility of seeing something extra-special like a white-billed diver or surf scoter - and on a clear day sunset over Bluemull Sound is second to none. Shetland is an amazing place to work - and where better to spend midsummer’s day?
Sunset over Brough Lodge and Bluemull Sound, Fetlar