Wanderings

Monthly Report, September 2025

Beaches to trees. Shetland to Oxford.

Reporting Days: 30

Location: Mostly Oxford

Distance Walked: 302 km

Distance Driven: 1020 km

On Shetland

There was just time for a few Quendale Beach walks and a brief visit to Sumburgh Head before packing up the car and heading north to Lerwick before a smooth crossing south to Aberdeen and then onto the big roads south to Oxford.

Quendale Beach

Sumburgh Head Lighthouse

Arriving into Aberdeen

In Oxford

The transition from Shetland life to the Oxford life is always a bit of a shock.

The roads are busy, the pavements are busy, the diary is busy and there are just so many trees.

There are, however, lots of parks, riverside walks and trees showing their autumn finery.

C S Lewis nature reserve

Autumn Colours in Headington Hill Park

Fungi in Bury Knowle Park

Mesopotamia Walk, River Cherwell

Milham Ford nature park

River Cherwell from the Oxford Botanic Garden

And next month?

Back on the buses and trains - and possibly a cable car or two.

Monthly Report, August 2025

Another Shetland month - but a month of transitions too. The auks pack up and head out to sea for the winter, the Shetland schools go back and the weather starts to take on autumn patterns.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Shetland

Distance Walked: 352 km

Distance Driven: 726 km

Days including a walk on Quendale Beach: 31

Days including a visit to Sumburgh Head: 21

Auks

Most of the breeding auks around Shetland make their way out to sea around the end of July, but during early August it's still worth scanning the clifftop burrows and the waters around Sumburgh Head for the last few razorbills and puffins.

The Patient Razorbill - one pair of razorbills stayed around a nest site well into August

The Last Puffin? - has everyone else gone already?

Sumburgh Head

The lighthouse at Sumburgh Head has been in use for over 200 years - but at the moment there are still curtains around the main lens while the rotation mechanism has been through a major overhaul. The Northern Lighthouse Board installed a set of temporary lights during the overhaul but they will (any day now!) swap back to the rotating main light and turn off the temporary lights.

The foghorn is (thanks to the efforts of Brian, the Retained Lighthouse Keeper) still operational, but hasn't been used for real since the 1980s, nowadays it's only sounded on special occasions.

Blue skies behind the Sumburgh Light

Not foghorn weather

Waves

Storms can stir up the waters around Shetland at any time of year, but during the autumn there are more likely to be big seas rolling in around the Shetland coastline.

Incoming Waves around Scat Ness

First Storm of Autumn

No weather for boating

No Waves

August can, on other days, bring a much more calming experience - some days the winds don't blow and the seas go flat calm - these are the days when you just want to sit quietly and watch for whales and dolphins.

Sumburgh seen from Scat Ness

Ideal cetacean spotting conditions

Flat calm around Horse Island

Quendale Beach

The local beach, just a few minutes walk from the front door - I try and walk it (at least) once each day when I'm on Shetland - some days this involves walking into a sand storm, on others an altogether more benign experience!

Strong winds on Quendale Beach

Blue Water, Quendale Beach

And Next Month? Heading South - expect to see more pictures of parks and trees..

Monthly Report, July 2025

Another splendid Shetland month, featuring many beach walks and a lot of auk watching.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Shetland

Distance Walked: 330 km

Distance Driven: 995 km

Days including a walk on Quendale Beach: 31

Days including a visit to the auks at Sumburgh Head: 25

Species of auk photographed: 4 (puffins, razorbills, guillemots & black guillemots)

Quendale Beach

One of the real bonuses of living on Shetland is having Quendale Beach just a few minutes walk from the front door. My ideal day would start with an early walk on the beach, preferably with a gentle breeze and at low tide. And probably end with a sunset walk too.

Quendale Beach - low tide

Sunset Walk - Quendale Beach

Razorbills (local name Sea Craa)

I've not made any secret of my enthusiasm for razorbills, they are without doubt the coolest of the auks. They do however tend to build nests and raise their young in rather (from the photographers perspective at least) out of the way places. So I was delighted that a couple of pairs opted for more visible nest locations at Sumburgh Head this summer.

The Coolest Auk...

Razorbill jumpling - ready to jump

Breakfast Delivery

Guillemots (Longwi)

The adult guillemots are very easy to see. They don't bother with nests, they just huddle up together and lay their eggs on bare cliff ledges and hope that they are densely enough packed to ensure that predators can't see the eggs or the hatchlings. Every now and again the groups will shuffle apart to offer a glimpse of a youngster. And as soon as they able, the youngsters will be steered to the cliff edge to earn their name 'jumplings'. Once they've jumped the chicks will be escorted out to sea by their fathers and paddle off in the general direction of Norway.

Guillemot dumplings

Ready to Jump

Black Guillemots (Tystie)

The tysties are the exception in my Shetland auk catalog - they do nest around the south end of Shetland, but not (as far as I know) at Sumburgh Head. They are stunning birds particularly in their summer plumage.

Tystie in Summer plumage - great feet

And matching gape!

Tystie pair

Puffins (Tammie Norie)

The razorbills may be the coolest auk, but the puffins are (for most visitors to Sumburgh Head) the stars of the show. They always seem to be ready to pose for the camera.

Striking a pose

Exploring the cliff-top furniture

Crowd control

Sumburgh Head

Sumburgh Head is a splendid location to visit at any time of year, but it is particularly special during the long summer days when the cliffs are busy with birds. In addition to the auks I've been watching this month there are kittiwakes, shag, fulmar, greater black-backed gulls breading all around the Head and Shetland wrens nesting in the drystone walls around the lighthouse site. And if you watch for a while you'll probably catch sight of a patrolling predatory Great Skua (aka Bonxie) or Raven (Corbie). If you want to learn more about the wildlife or the history of the site there's an excellent visitor centre and cafe (just in case the weather isn't a good as in the pictures).

Sumburgh Head

Sumburgh Head is a great place for sunsets

Next month, as the breeding birds desert the cliffs, there are likely to be more landscape photographs. And waves, lots of waves.

Monthly Report, June 2025

A good Shetland month --- mostly spent at the south end of the Shetland Mainland hanging out with the Sumburgh Head puffins. So I thought this report should be an All Puffin Special Issue.

Reporting Days: 30

Location: Shetland

Distance Walked: 300 km

Distance Driven: 800 km

Distance Trained: 0 km (there are no trains on Shetland)

Puffins Photographed: Most of Them

June is a splendid time to spend at a puffin colony.

At the start of the month the breeding adults are busy with putting the final touch to their nests and then sitting on their eggs, by mid-June the eggs have hatched, which means that the adults are busy bringing sand eels back to the wee pufflings (and you just might get a first glimpse of them).

Around mid-June we also get the puffin 'non-breeders' returning to the cliffs where they were born. These birds are typically three years old (teenagers in puffin years), and they get up to all sorts of mischief hanging about around the 'grown-up' puffins.