2021 was a strange year. In many ways just a continuation of 2020 - so how do I distinguish it from 2020?
Travel was again pretty much curtailed - still haven't been on a plane, train or bus since early 2020 - and travel has been primarily day trips between Oxford and Surrey plus a number of extended trips to Shetland (achieved by car and boat).
Having got the travel grumble out of the way, and on the plus side, I'm actually quite pleased that my carbon footprint has been so reduced and it's been splendid to have had so many days when the big decision was which Shetland beach to wander on.
I have successfully taken another 365 pictures of the day. I have successfully taken another 12 pictures of the month (see below for this years set). I've taken a bewilderingly large number of photographs (I'm blaming the auks - and the very fast silent rapid shooting function on the new cameras).
My vague target was to walk 2000 miles this year - haven't even made it to 1500 - again, I think I'm going to blame the auks, I spent far too much of the Shetland summer sitting watching them to clock up the walking miles I might otherwise have done.
And since this seems to have turned into another post about auks, I might as well point out that I've seen five species of auk around Shetland this year - puffins, guillemots, black guillemots and razorbills and, finally, a little auk - much less common around Shetland than it's cousins but no less welcome.
Auks
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| Little Auk at Grutness |
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| Guillemots at Sumburgh Head |
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| Razorbill at Sumburgh Head |
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| Puffin at Sumburgh Head |
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| Black Guillemot at Scat Ness |
Pictures of the Month 2021
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| January: Christ Church Meadow, Oxford |
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| February: Green Lane, Shotover Estate, Oxford |
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| March: Mallard, C. S. Lewis Reserve, Oxford |
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| April: Blue Tit in the Oxford garden |
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| May: Puffins at Sumburgh Head |
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| June: Pyramidal Orchid at Milham Ford Nature Park, Oxford |
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| July: Puffin and Puffling at Sumburgh Head |
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| August: Orca at Scat Ness |
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| September: Blue Tit in the Oxford garden |
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| October: Scat Ness Sunset |
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| November: Snipe at RSPB Otmoor, Oxfordshire |
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| December: Kingfisher at Port Meadow, Oxford |
