Well hard to believe another three weeks have passed, and my
time aboard the MV Island Sky has ended.
Just on the train south from Edinburgh, heading for Chester to stay with
Sue Flood to catch up for a night.
The last cruise was incredible, with fantastic weather
almost throughout. Sunshine and more
sunshine in Scotland, and although we missed Fair Isle due to strong winds and
not being sure we would be able to land, we did everything else we
planned. St Kilda was outstanding, with
it being (I think) my seventh visit there, and I’ve managed to land
everytime...a pretty good record considering.
It is a very weather dependent landing, and so I have been lucky to
date. We had beautiful sunshine the
whole day, and landed in the morning and then zodiac cruised around Dun in the
afternoon. Managed to snap some nice
fulmar shots in the morning, as well as a St Kilda wren, and perhaps the
highlight of the day for me was showing a gentleman whose father had written the
first modern scientific paper on the wren, one of the birds in question. Very cool.
During the zodiac cruise there were thousands of puffins
along the island and on the water, and so we had great views of them, plus all
the other regulars including guillemots and kittiwakes. Some superb cruising through caves and
arches, and stunning colours in the water.
A great afternoon and then finished with a cruise past the stacks and
Boreray with 60,000 breeding pairs of gannets.
Next day was Inverewe Gardens in the morning and the Summer
Isles in the afternoon, with another glorious day of sunshine. Great views from the top of Tanera Mor. The following day in Shetland was again
sunny, but breezy (hence missing Fair Isle) and so we made the usual stops in the
morning and then some time in Lerwick in the afternoon. Lots of Shetland ponies around and starlings
were feeding chicks in the stonewalls around Jarlshof. Sumburgh Head had a few puffins coming out of
their burrows, so managed a couple of snaps, but nothing to rival some of my
shots from last year.
Yesterday was on Orkney, with the odd shower of rain, and
quite cold, but the sun shone every now and then. We had spectacular views of two short-eared
owls from the bus, which was great. The
afternoon was at sea as we headed down to Leith...arriving early this morning.
So now I have a night with Sue, then four nights with Mum
and Dad, before flying to Norway for the next adventure! Some photos below, and a lot more on my
Eco-Vista facebook page.
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Fulmar hanging in the air |
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Fulmars hanging out on the cliffs |
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Diving |
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Hanging out |
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Love the feathers on the forewing |
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Come on then! |
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Butterwort |
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The cemetery on St Kilda |
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Village Bay |
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Soay sheep wool |
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St Kilda wren |
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Looking on |
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Starling with food for its babies |
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The teenagers |
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The cliffs of Dun |
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An awesome cruise around Dun |
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Light in the water |
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Oh yeah, look at that water! |
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Heading to the stacks and Boreray |
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Stac Lee with gannets, gannets, gannets! |
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Northern gannet passing |
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Boreray |
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Immature gannet |
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Stac an Armin, with more gannets |
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The Summer Isles |
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Common seals on the beach at Shetland |
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Shetland ponies...on Shetland of course! |
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Starlings lining up |
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Lil' pony |
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Coming in for a look |
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My my, what a big snout I have! |
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Common guillemots at Sumburgh Head |
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Puffin having a stretch |
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