Natural Selection

I will get round to some musings about birding Foula in spring, but in the meantime here are some cute Puffin pics.

I am going to do a few posts about my recent Shetland trip, which consisted of a week on Foula and just shy of that on Out Skerries. They will hopefully be uplifting and inspiring generally, but it’s not possible to talk about birding Foula this spring without first addressing the impacts of bird flu. […]

There’s probably no more appropriate time to review this book than now. I am rained off in Lerwick at the end of a couple of weeks in Shetland, and spent half an hour this afternoon talking on the street to one contributor (Dennis Coutts) and said hi to another as we crossed the road in […]

Observant readers will already have noticed this one isn’t just about birds. It’s also not just about Skerries either. Before heading out to the isles I took part in the Relay for Cancer Research, a twelve hour overnight charity walk. There had been a Bearded Seal right in the centre of Lerwick, and I eventually […]

I haven’t been doing a very good job of getting these done, and I am conscious the quality of the pictures in this one are a bit mixed but hopefully someone will enjoy reading this instalment. Jane came on this trip and it was a lovely week weather wise. I particularly remember sunbathing on the […]

There was a lot of coverage of Skerries in the autumn of 2017. A group of Scarborough birders had found a Yellow-breasted Bunting, a bird it was thought at the time might never be seen again in Britain. It was so unexpected that some birders chartered the island ferry on a day it didn’t normally […]

Bluethroats have been arriving in Shetland in small numbers today. I haven’t had time to do a Best Stays piece tonight, so I’m doing a short photo gallery of some Bluethroats I’ve seen over the years. Some readers may not be familiar with this Robin like species, it should be clear where they get their […]

On the back of a quiet trips in 2009 I decided to go in the peak of the autumn season. I was staying at Hillside Cottage by the airstrip. The regular crew of Mike McKee, Chris Turner, Marek Walford and Trevor Warwick were at Rocklea. We travelled out in atrocious conditions where the swell was […]

The title is a nod to the Classic Days series from the journal British Birds a number of years ago. Coincidentally the 1989 compilation of these stories of great birding experiences includes one by David Fisher from Out Skerries in August 1975. I’ve never day tripped the islands like Shetland birders do, so I’m going […]

Before I go on to some ‘great stays with Skerries birds’ type of posts I am going to reflect on some of the changes on the isles in the fifteen years I have been visiting. I know this isn’t really nature writing, so apologies to those who come here for that content but hopefully it […]