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.
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| The Patient Razorbill - one pair of razorbills stayed around a nest site well into August |
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| 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.
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| Blue skies behind the Sumburgh Light |
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| 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.
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| Incoming Waves around Scat Ness |
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| First Storm of Autumn |
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| 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.
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| Sumburgh seen from Scat Ness |
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| Ideal cetacean spotting conditions |
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| 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!
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| Strong winds on Quendale Beach |
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| Blue Water, Quendale Beach |
And Next Month? Heading South - expect to see more pictures of parks and trees..
