SHETLAND BIRD NEWS & MORE!

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MAINLAND

Bonaparte's Gull again this morning, Iceland Gull briefly this evening at Shetland Catch, Gremista, Lerwick.

Glaucous Gull 3w at Pool of Virkie.

 

ISLANDS 

Ring Ouzel at Skaw, Whalsay.

Hawfinch at Valyie, Norwick, Unst. 

 

https://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/latest_sightings.html 

 

I've had a very mixed day, which was full of good things and some definately not so good!

 

The pair of Bramblings were on my feeders again early this morning along with a Robin in the garden. Took my car to the garage for its MOT at 8am and birded around Scalloway whilst I was waiting. I really should explore Scalloway fully and on a regular basis – I found some lovely walks, particularly north of Berry Road. Found a Woodpigeon in the sunken garden in Lovers Lane, then ambled up Berry Road and just by the junction of Ingaville Road had my first Swallow of the year which flew low over the road south! Further along Berry Road I had 2 Pied Wagtails fly over the fields calling. Lots of Starlings around and some gorgeous sheep and ponies. Beautiful light today and almost no wind – the calm before the storm! Walked along Sycamore Road which is where there is a gorgeous large detached house with a large lawn full of daffodils and surrounded by stone wall and sycamores. Found some lovely gardens along this road. I love seeing what people are growing in the their gardens – even at this time of the year there is always something to see. Found some lovely pine trees at the end of this road too.

 

Returned to the garage to find (as I kind of expected) my car had passed its MOT! Drove home and had breakfast. Phoned Lucy for a catch up and then got cut off – this was the point that Vodafone decided to stop working in Scalloway and later on, after several live web chats to Vodafone etc and after posting messages on Shetland Facebook pages, I discovered that many people were affected, but it seemed to be in random areas of Shetland. I couldn't phone or text at all and I don't have a landline. Made a flask and sorted out some food for the rest of the day and just before I headed to Lerwick I walked along to the end of my road to see if there were any birds. I had a lovely chat with a neighbour about gardening, living here and all kinds!

 

Returned home and was just about to get in the car when I noticed something on the bottom of my shoe!!! Obviously someone had not cleared up after their dog at the end of my road (I know it was at the very end on the narrow grass verge, as I drove up there later at the end of the day to find the remains of it!) This resulted in a couple of hours lost from my life. Took ages to remove the majority from shoe with bits of stick etc and from my concrete steps, then had to wash shoe with outside tap and I am fanatical about removing every tiny bit and won't stop cleaning until I can't smell it at all, I absolute HATE it! Then brought shoe indoors and tried to bleach the last bits out of the crevices of my walking shoe! Then I had to roll up the door mats in the hall which I had walked on (before I knew) and these will have to be washed later. What a palaver!!! Makes me SO angry!

 

Phone still not working. Drove to Lerwick to carry out an essential job (banking stuff) and had a fabulous surprise of a Red Grouse flying at eye level across the road in front of me!!! Couldn't believe it! I did have one on Gallow Hill when I first moved to Scalloway, but this is only the second I have seen in this area. My phone was working normally in Lerwick! Phoned Vodafone and spoke to a human being who told me there was a "maintenance issue" and they didn't know how long it would be before it was resolved.

 

Andy J. (recently returned to Shetland) re-found the Bonaparte's Gull this morning at Shetland Catch, so I went along there to see if it was still around – Andy was there again and we didn't see but did see an Iceland Gull land on the water and then flew off just as quickly as it landed and had no time to grab my camera from the car seat it was that brief! Very cold now. Drove home where I found that my phone was working normally again thank goodness. Had a cosy night by the fire. I don't think it will be possible or sensible to even leave the house tomorrow!

 

I have come to the conclusion that I may need to find a plumber here to fit a entire water filtration system for the house. I have contacted Scottish Water by email today to ask them if they can test the water again and give me the results for all the metals etc in my water. I was chatting with someone today who believes that the water probably has a high content of heavy metals in this area and along with the lead from the lead pipe, this is more than likely the cause of my scalp situation I feel. I know I'm allergic to metals and have the results (glad I kept them) from skin allergy tests done a few years ago and also many, many years ago when I was married, my then husband and I lived in a council farm tied cottage, which had well water and I went through hell and back with that water, which had green smudgy coppery bits in the water and I had to end up washing my hair (which was even longer in those days) in 5 gallon water containers from Tesco, as I simply could not use the water from the well, as my hair was on fire as was my skin – I recall vividly that my skin bled at times – after a two year fight with the council we were put on mains water and everything was resolved eventually. Its all making sense now. My skin is very dry and sore at times since I have been here and no its not just the wind. This evening I washed my hair in bottled water. I normally wash it twice and then apply conditioner, so only able to wash it once and no conditioner as I would have used too many bottles – it felt considerably better, but will see how it feels tomorrow. A birding couple who visit in the Spring and Autumn here, told me that they suffer with an itchy scalp whenever they stay here...... It's grinding me down mentally and if I wasn't vain I would shave all my hair off right now – that's how bad its got, but I suppose it will all get sorted in the end! I've suffered with far worse things in life such as Endometriosis! Good night!