Fair Isle

Male Rosefinch & Red-Rumped Swallow - How close is too close?

2012-05-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus - male

In the window box birdtable

I woke this morning 8:15am with my son yelling "Dad! female Rosefinch on the birdfeeder!" I was not that surprise because it had been eating the cast off seeds on the ground the night before but still I was excited! I came down stairs and there it was just outside the window. I soon checked the other window and couldn't believe it! A Male! I called the family over... move slow, don't scare it, I said. then a Redpoll flew up and lost it's fight to get onto the birdfeeder. "It's a red bird day!" I said, and with the day later sightings of 3 Red-backed Shrikes and a Red-Rumped Swallow it certainly was. We have not had a red male in a few years, last year Nick had unpesidented flock of 16 Rosefinch in his garden not one of them red... The 2 Rosefinch were last seen on the feeder at about 9:30pm. Henry & I took about 250 photos over the course of the day, here are a few.

The bird fluffed & unfluffed

The 2 Rosefinch fed all day on my Nigerseed feeder I made out of a old baby lambs bottle.

The male & female Rosefinch in the old X-mas trees.

Female Rosefinch

Female Rosefinch sharing feeder with the resident Twite.

Rosefinch on the Stick List!

Red-Rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica

When I say the birds are to close I mean like we had to duct our heads and bodies sometimes as the Red-Rumped Swallow came that close. The Red-Rumped Swallow was a self found lifer for Asst. Warden David (sorry I can't recall his last name at the moment) but I don't think he could either at the time. Well done! It is amazing to watch any Swallow but this one is a Fair Isle - First for Britain from 1906 check this out for some history on it: http://fair-isle.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/red-rumped-swallow-flew-over-my-garden.html

Red Rumped Swallow flying out of frame. The black bit cut off on the top boarder.

A Red-Backed Shrike at Setter Croft spotted by Ian Stout.

It's a red bird day!

Thrush Nightingale & Shore Lark

2012-05-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

Thrush Nightingale Luscinia luscinia
Fair Isle - May 20th 2012

The Thrush Nightingale was caught & ringed by Fair Isle Bird Observatory Warden David Parnaby on Morning trap rounds. This is the first one I have seen in the hand... though I have seen one almost every year and 3 times in my own garden, it was great to see this bird close up, not flicking around and diving into cover. Plenty of other new birds in today, like in my garden 16 Siskin, a Goldfinch & 2 Tree Sparrows! Elsewhere on isle 2 Bluethroats, the first Icterine Warbler of the year & another Hoopoe all have been reported today... I've got to get back out there! what's next?

(Common) Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos

Fair Isle - May 21st 2012

Wow I can't beleave it! One of each. The "Common" Nightingale is more common in most of Britain but actually rarer on Fair Isle than Thrush Nightingale. Both birds a day apart must mean something? I don't know what that is, but it's great for comparison! The Common Nightingale has a buff or plain chest and a over all rusty red colour. While the Thrush Nightingale has a mottled chest and a duller grey brown body & wings. To confirm one species from the other it usually best to measure & examine the wing feathers as the wardens have done with these 2 birds.

Thrush Nightingale & away it went happily with some new jewellery.

This Shore Lark turned a few heads as well!

Horned Lark aka Shore Lark Eremophila alpestris

This was a lifer for Henry & me! My bogey bird has finally showed it's self. I had dipped Shore Lark 3 times on Fair Isle. I must say I'm glad to see one in Summer plumage and in a convenient location in the nearby freshly tilde Kennaby crop. Thanks to Dr.Will Miles for a great tick and my Bird of the Week!

Goldfinches & Tree Sparrows are not common on Fair Isle.
always a pleasure to see for me.

Common Rosefinch (v*) The female is a good bird but it's the red adult male you want to see!
May 21st 2012

Oystercatcher egg & nest sight

Shetland Wildlife Group - Fair Isle May 2012

More good eggs! Things started out well as they saw a Wryneck in my garden just minutes after arriving. In retrospect I bet they now wish they had stayed the weekend. Still they saw some good birds The seabirds alone are stunning! But Fair Isle rare bird waited until the weekend and the winds to change to the east.

Reed Bunting on the Auld Haa padio.

Grey or Blue Headed? - Yellow Wagtail was one of the highlights

Whitethroat on the South Harbour beach.

They had no complains about the food and seemed to enjoy their adventure to Fair Isle and stay at the Auld Haa Guesthouse.

Coastguard practice mission

Montagu's Sea-snail Liparis montagui

The rarest sighting on Fair Isle is this badly named fish? The Montagu's Sea-snail caught by my son Henry looks more like a tadpole than a snail? Nick Riddiford says it's a first record for Fair Isle. We have it in our saltwater fish tank where I noticed a big life threatening parasite. I gave it minor surgery to remove the worm. I've seen these worms in the bellies of large fish like Cod & Pollack but never in such a small fish. It's been 2 days and it seems fine? but we are watching it closely.

The Norwegian Girls Gone Wild in Shetland... & Fair Isle. Watch the video!

2012-05-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian Girls at the South Lighthouse, Fair Isle.

Three teenage media students come to Shetland. Legend!

Watch their video it says it all...

Well done! I had seen a longer version as well and I liked that too.

South Lighthouse - Fair Isle, Shetland.

North Lighthouse & the Norwegian Starlets!

Barn Swallows & Bluethroats! Bird!

2012-05-11T03:03:00.002-07:00

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica

I love the Barn Swallows! and this maybe my best photo this Spring, I look forward to the Swallows return every year and of all the birds I see here this species always reminds me of growing up in the USA. Yes, we had (Eurasian) House Sparrows there as well as Starlings. But It seems the Barn Swallows are truly a bird of the world and everyone must love to watch them fly but to see them sit still is amazing too.

Female - House Sparrow

Male - House Sparrow

Driving home after helping to unload the Good Shepherd Ferry in the North Haven I see a little bird dart across the road in front of the car as i'm heading up the hill by the Bird Obs. A flash of red in the tail made me think Redstart for a instant but the tail had black tips! Bluethroat! Plus it helps to have already of known 2 Bluethroats have been seen on Isle an one had been delighting folks in the Obs garden for the past few days. But if it is going to make it's self known and sit out in the open... I'll stop to get a better view & a record shot...

What a stunner!

Male - Bluethroat - Luscinia svecica

Male - Common Redstart
Just one of the many birds around I can't get a decent record photo of....
Lapland, Reed & Snow Bunting have all alluded my camera... haven't even seen the Ortolan Bunting!

One of the many Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs on the South Harbour beach.

A tried Barn Swallow resting & warming it's self on the beach after a long flight.

Male - Brambling

Female - Brambling

Male - Pied Flycatcher

White Wagtail

Male - Goldeneye

I saw my first Goldeneye in the South Harbour after Stuart Wilson's funeral a little over a year ago... and since then they have been seemingly much more common here and it's a nice reminder. cheers!

Fair Isle made in Fair Isle - Crafts & Knitwear at the Hall for the first Cruise Ship

2012-05-08T03:21:00.001-07:00

Mati & David King - Fair Isle Knitwear display.
http://www.fairisleknitwear.co.uk

We had first cruise ship sale at the Fair Isle Hall, here are some photos... The ship had only 27 visitors & I'm pretty sure the isle had more than that scurrying around to accommodating their brief visit, but with so much great knitting an crafts on display the luck few cherry picked some of the best items made over the winter months. Well done everyone! We are hoping for 11 more cruise ships over the next few months if they all make it a shore in good weather with maximum capacity we might see about 1000 more folks.

Elena Mera-Long's Hats - hand spun Fair Isle wool & hand knit.

Some of my stuff... Postcards, Nice Hats, Painted Limpet Shells

Elizabeth Riddiford - Fair Isle Knitting
Exclusively Fair Isle Knitwear
http://exclusivelyfairisleknitwear.yolasite.com/

Fair Isle Bird Observatory gifts table

Fiona & the Stackhoull Store table
& Ruth at the Primary School table

Triona & Holly's Fair Isle Knitting

http://www.fairislemadeinfairisle.com

Mati had Great News Today!

Fair Isle knitting honoured by the British Fashion with a flags on Oxford Street London.

Check it out! http://www.oxfordstreet.co.uk/fashion-flags/ or watch the video!

BBC Springwatch on Fair Isle & a New Lamb Skin Jacket

2012-05-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

BBC Springwatch Crew with Roy Dennis

At cliffs edge the isle has a way of humbling everyone even the biggest of celebrities.
Fair Isle it's self will hopefully shine through as the awe inspiring star it is...
If you watch Springwatch they plan to share regular local wildlife stories.
I can't wait to see what they come up with? Springwatch starts at the end of the month.

As you can see the Good Shepherd had a good day... with the sea so calm.
They even saw a Minky Whale off Sumburgh Head.

Spring Watch for most Fair Islanders is all about the lambs...

A Lamb Skin Jacket?

This Lamb is triplet... this always causes a problem because a mother has only 2 teats. The runt or caddy lamb is usually taken off the mother and some times killed or bottle fed. Cute as it my seem, bottle feeding a lamb is no profitable for a crofter and its a lot of work. Our crofters know a few tricks and this is one "The Lamb Skin Jacket" is one of the strangest to the casual on looker but is really quite efficient. In this case this mother ewe (our bottle fed caddy lamb Violet from 2007) had lost her muckle lamb for unforeseen reasons. The ewe still full of milk, this triplet is put on to it's new mother using the old skin from the dead lamb to help bond the new family unit. The result is amazing after a day or 2 the skin is removed and all is well with the world.

This Lambs mother had an infected teat and could no longer feed both it's lambs. While this mother had lost her lamb for no apparent reason. So the two have been match together with the skin & scent of the dead lamb to help connect the bond between the two.

The lamb follows the ewe around looking for acceptance.

It works, not to say they are always happy about at first.

Northern Pintail - Self found Island tick & Lifer! (record shot)

Back to the birds! Today I found 2 Northern Pintails in the South Harbour coming back from the shop about 1pm. Drive by birding photographed from the drivers seat. I didn't know what they were at first? I did know I had never seen them before so i made a few notes and drove home to look in my Collins Bird Guide. Pintail! I go back to the harbour on foot and they are gone? :(

as far as I know so far I'm the only person to see them so I share this rubbish record shot so someone will believe me... you know who you are. Birders, we all need a bit of proof!

The day started out with a phone call alerting me of a Bluethroat seen at the parks by the old mill... Believe it or not a Pintail is a much rarer bird on Fair Isle. The day ended with a Green Sandpiper on the Scrape.

Puffin Photos by Henry Tonight

2012-04-29T15:21:00.002-07:00

Hawfinch gone nuts!

2012-04-27T15:24:00.002-07:00

Hawfinch on the Peanut Feeder Today.
3rd bird of the year in my garden.

Brambling

Dunnock

Female Hawfinch today

Hawfinch 2 days ago
sorry about this photo but it was very grey out and I had already got better photos of the first one.

Hawfinch - April 15th

Suzie Q

in the studio

Good Night Moon...

Birds, Art & Cute Lambs - random photos of Fair Isle

2012-04-24T02:14:00.000-07:00

The Bluethroat

This is a painting make over... you could say I started it in 2007 and finished it the other day. It sat on my walls for years and I was never that happy with it. Sick of looking at it, I took it down to the studio a month ago. Then a few days ago I smashed it with colour and pattern! I love it now!

This Painting commemorates the first Bluethroat I ever saw... Spring 2007 in the Ferny Cup, Fair Isle. After hearing that a Bluethroat was seen Henry & I went looking for it... such a small bird in a big open area for two new birdwatchers. I was looking at a pipit when Henry said there it is! He was right of course. Now the painting has the excitement and the unbelievable flash of colour I felt when the little bird turned it's chest into the light and indeed it was a Bluethroat. I can't wait to see one again this year!

Kestrel on the garden wall.

Jimmy's Big Lambs

Love the Beard! - Bearded Bunting? or Whiskered Sparrow?

"Shearwater" Malcom Green & Tim Dallins
Thanks guys! You really know how to put on a show!

Common Crane not so common here on Fair Isle.
Please forgive this record shot from a half a mile away... it's badly taken in light rain with a fully zoomed pocket camera in a friends scope.

Black-Eyed Suzanne our caddy lamb from 2007 had triplets!
Now we are getting a caddy from our caddy! How cool is that! Her name will be Suzie Q

Henry & Suzie Q only 4 hours old.

1st Barn Swallows of the year

Large Butterfish

The rare Cowrie Shells of Fair Isle... We bet you can't find one!

We saved this Blackbird from inside a Lobster trap.

We saved this Fulmar trapped in a plantie crub by the Kirk and then let it go in the South Harbour.

Last we saw of it it was in the water cleaning it self.

Henry spotted this Wryneck in the garden.

but we didn't see the Hoopoe....
A Hoopoe was seen by Stuart at Quoy and then by the 2 Shearwater guys late Saturday night... already bummed out by FC Barcelona's lost to Real Madrid, I went to look for the bird and the car wouldn't start... it was getting to dark, but I did go looking for it anyways. The next day Sue of Brecks said she saw a striking thrush size bird with a crest on it's head like one of those cycling time trial helmets? We set out again. Myself, Henry & the whole FIBO staff dipped it? even though we tried...

Drawing by Henry made a few years ago when we saw our first and only Hoopoe.

Great Grey Shrike in the ringing room

2012-04-19T03:46:00.002-07:00

Great Grey Shrike - Lanius excubitor

no one wants to see you Tommy... photo & comment by my son Henry

Asst. Warden Jason Moss & Great Grey Shrike in the ringing room at the Fair Isle Bird Observatory.

The white on the tail feathers give clues to the birds sub species?

Thanks Jason it's nice to see one in the hand.

What a beauty!

Hawfinch - Auld Haafinch up close and personal

2012-04-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Hawfinch - Coccothraustes Coccothraustes

As we like to say around here the "Auld Haafinch" as we just love to see them like this! What a lovely bird! A male in stunning spring plumage. What personality! He fought off the Starlings, House Sparrows & Chickens for rights to the window box. Though we get one or two in the garden and window box every year this is the first one that has freely let Henry & I photograph it in the window box and on my stick. The Hawfinch was first seen about 2pm. It fed all day until dark. We welcomed visitors to stop bye and into the house to watch the show! & what a show most people are lucky to see a part of one up top a tree at a considerable distance.

My son Henry (age 11) took these photos from the window only a few feet away.

Fair Isle Bird Observatory Staff came in for a front row seat!

The weird thing is?

This is the first photo of the Hawfinch rubbish I know but as you can see there is no bird feed in the window box? Has this bird been here before? Weird? Why else would such a shy bird be in a empty feeder? but I quickly fill the feeders and covered the ground with feed and it still goes for the window box? One of the birds here last Autumn was ringed, but if any bird could chew a ring off it's leg my money would be on a Hawfinch look at that beak! they say they can break cherry stones.

Easter Foiled Again! First Baby Lamb & Sea Snail Fish

2012-04-08T07:27:00.002-07:00

Thank You Easter Bunny!

Foiled Again!

Skerry Holm's first lamb & mother

Spring vacation & low tides means plenty of tidepooling...

This fish is called a Sea Snail a first or lifer for us!

Montaga's Sea Snail Liparis montagui

We think? it's also called a Tadpole Fish?

it looks more like a tadpole than a snail to us?

Butterfish Pholis gunnellus

Great Auk Clones to be Hatched on Fair Isle! Extinct no More?

2012-04-01T02:27:00.000-07:00

The Witch of St. Kilda - 1840
There are no written or audio records of the call of the Great Auk...
I can only wonder if it sounds like a snickering, laughing or screaming witch?

Cloning the Great Auk

The DNA sequencing is only a small part in successful cloning of the once extinct Great Auk said Dr. April J. First of Oxford, who is collaborating with the Scottish & Canadian cloners. Samples from birds in museum collections from around the world have been gathered to get a diverse gene pool. A huge effort was under taken to hatch a Great Auk in the lab and the plan is now to go wild! After years of work, a combined effort of scientists from the UK & Canada is culminating this Spring on Fair Isle. Next week a 2-person team will arrive on the isle to surgically implant cloned embryonic DNA into about 12 of our local Razorbill population. They are bringing with them a portable lab/surgery that fits in 2 backpack units-- as they plan to work on site at the rocky beaches and low cliff edges. The Razorbills will hopefully lay an egg to be hatched & reared in the wild, much like the nest parasite Cuckoo who leaves a egg for a smaller bird to feed. I personally can't wait to see the "new" Great Auk, but I also know Razorbills are having a hard time fledging their own young. I'm told that the nest will be monitored and helped if needed. Fair Isle was picked for it's location, no egg sucking rodents & infrastructure, plus, limited "Auk gawk" as she referred. I myself hope to be a "Auk Gawker" soon but the nesting site is at the bottom of the cliffs at Easter Loder and that is sure to cut down the foot traffic. Intrigued I had a look online at some of the history and science of the cloning of the Great Auk and have provided some links if you are interested?

History

The Great Auk is large and flightless seabird, it was also known as a penguin and garefowl and was hunted to extinction for its oil, feathers and eggs. The seabird was a familiar sight to sailors and islanders in the North Atlantic until the mid 1800s. In

Scotland

, the last one was thought to have been caught and killed on the remote island archipelago of St Kilda. According to the National Trust for

Scotland

(the owners of St Kilda), it occasionally visited the island group. Scots writer Martin. Martin wrote of seeing the bird there in his book A Late Voyage to St Kilda 1698 referring to the bird as a Witch.

St. Kilda boast the last recorded sighting of a Great Auk in the British Isles.

It was made in 1840, when islanders on Stac an Armin suspected it was a witch and the cause of a tremendous storm. The last breeding pair are believed to have been spotted (and promptly killed) in 1844 by sailors on a rocky outcrop on the island of Eldey off

Iceland

. And the last recorded sighting was in Newfoundland,

Canada

, in 1852.

More great Great Auk info & History: http://www.messybeast.com/extinct/great-auk.htm

a bit of the Science publish in the Oxford Journals: http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/9/1434.full

Fig. 1.—Organization and sequence characteristics of great auk mtDNA. a, Schematic representation of a 4,258-bp mtDNA region in great auk. The length of each gene is indicated, and lengths of the intergenic spacers are given below the gene junctions. For designation of tRNAs the corresponding three-letter amino acid code is used. A representation of the control region with conserved boxes F, D, C, and conserved sequence block I (CSB I) is given below. The heteroplasmic tandem repeat (HTR) region and a possible TAS are indicated. b, Multiple sequence alignment of the 3′ end of the control region showing the position and sequence motifs of HTRs in CR III of six alcid species. Dashes represent gaps. HTR sequence motifs are shown in brackets, and n designates the variable number of repeats found within single individuals, a condition known as heteroplasmy. The 3′ end of the CR is indicated

Since 2002 Scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum have been slowly but successfully piecing together the genetic blueprint of the Great Auk from the scattered remains of a bird whose extinction at the hand of man in the first half of the 19th century has made it the tragic figure of Canadian nature.

In a project aimed at tracing the Great Auk's evolutionary history and establishing its relationship to several living species of birds, the researchers are also taking the first steps toward a tantalizing possibility: the complete mapping of an extinct animal's genome and its resurrection through cloning

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/642021/posts

Razorbill parents of a cloned Great Auk chick.

As a human I have always been ashamed of this type of mass extinction.

I wish that I could say the Great Auk flies again! even though it never could...
If you have not figured it out yet...

April Fools!
The above links I found by google and are real as far as I know?
Dr. April J. First says cloning gone wild will have to wait a few years...

Bumble Bee? rare bee? or not rare bee? that is the question?

2012-03-28T05:32:00.003-07:00

Buff - Tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris?

After posting this"Bumble Bee"photo on the my blog last night it already has a few naturalist asking questions? To start with....Yes, this photo was taken in my garden here on Fair Isle, Shetland.

I have to admit I looked in my Collins - Complete British Insects Guide Book?

Once there I was a bit confused, though I was drawn to the photo of Bomus terrestis it didn't have the ginger fringe on the tail? (a trait of the Queen?) So I just called it "Bee! 1st of the year!"And I was very happy with that, if it turns out to be a first for Shetland I'll be thrilled...

to quote one naturalist:

"It looks to be a very fresh looking Bombus terrestris queen – a species which has not yet been recorded in Orkney or Shetland so far as I know. Was the photo definitely taken on Fair Isle?

If so it’s a very surprising find!"

I have added 4 more photos to make sure the identification is correct.

What do you think?

Could it Bee a 1st for Fair Isle, Shetland & Orkney?

From an Email from Fair Isle's Nick Riddiford in Majorca:
Yes, you've got the bee world buzzing. Northernmost UK record; first northern isles record for Buff-Tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris, congrats. Significant find.

Added march 29th 2012

Henry's Bee found in the school play ground - Photo by Amber

Two days ago when I told my son 11 year old son Henry that I saw the first Bee of spring... He said, "Ha! I had one yesterday in the school playground." Cheeky! So yesterday when I told Henry that the Bumble Bee I saw was a first for Fair Isle, Shetland & Orkney he thought he should have that record. As Henry tried to steal my thunder once again, I told him he should of taken a photo. He remembered he didn't but, his classmate Amber did with the school camera! I made a call last night and I was emailed this photo this morning from the school teacher. (Thanks Lisa!) Ha! not the same Bee! but I have not definitive identification for this species either? My Collins Guide Book - Complete British Insects isn't showing any Bee in this stage or view? using the book my best guess was Bombus pascuorum? or Bombus muscorum? but I went online to the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust website for further help with their guides and photos and now think it maybe Bombus humilis Brown Banded Carder Bee?

I need your help! again? what will it Bee?

Hey kids! the pros say it's a very early record of
Bombus muscorum (Shetland Bumble Bee)
earliest ever recorded in Shetland

Birds & the Bees & New Fire Station? New Spiny Starfish

2012-03-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Spiny Starfish - it's a new one for Henry & I

With the low Spring tides it makes for great tidepooling! Here are a few of the more interesting finds.

I like how the setting sunlight illuminates this Scorpion Fish.

Henry catches his biggest Squat Lobster ever!

Sand Goby

Construction of the new Fire Station Building started Monday.

Gound Breaker - Magnus, David & Alistair
Ness Engineering LTD.

Day 1

Day 2

The Birds

Siskin -female

Fair Isle Wren
It's Spring & I love hearing them sing!

Goldcrest

& the Bee!
1st of the year!

Can you find the skulking Goldcrest in the old Christmas tree?

Norwegian Girls - Birds - Sports Relief - Tidepooling

2012-03-24T15:03:00.001-07:00

The Norwegian girls play around... of golf!

Media students from Norway have been staying at the Auld Haa Guesthouse and have extended their stay to last though the weekend due to heavy fog in Shetland making transport impossible.

A female Siskin

Birds have been on the move...

I had a Goldcrest in the garden today! other birds around the Isle include Wagtails Pied & White,

a Kestrel, Siskins, Chiffchaff, Brambings, Black Redstart, Bean Geese & even a Puffin or 2 off shore.

Greylag, Pink-footed & Bean Geese. a real mixed gaggle!

How does Henry find these things!

Little Cushion Star - Asterina phylactica

With the very low Spring tides we did some tidepooling of the South Lighthouse.

We found all sorts of things! High lights are... Henry refound 6 of his famous Little Cushion Stars.

6 Sea Hares, 1 sea slugs Limacia clavigera, 1 Sacoglossa Elyia viridis, a Squat Lobster, Hermit Crabs,

& a Long Clawed Porcelain Crab! we have only found one other but that was dead and in the stomach contents of a cod we caught last year.

Sea Hare - 2cm

Nudibranchia - Sea Slug Limacia Clavigera about 1cm

The UK's most remote Sports Relief runners on Fair Isle.
They ran about a mile up hill, from the Puff Inn to the School/Hall parking lot.
Henry & Deryk set a fast pace! but wisdom of age gave in to youth.

My Lighthouse Art Studio Window

The sun tries to burn off the clouds

Sunset at Fair Isle's South Lighthouse

A Certain Glow - Northern Lights & Aurora

2012-03-23T08:04:00.001-07:00

Auld Haa House has a certain glow about it.
The Green haze of the Northern Lights shown bright in the clear moonless sky last night.
It looks oddly familiar in a light pollution hazy way, like a mall parking lot or a distant city just over the hill.
The light shown brightly about 9pm only to fade into complete darkness by 10pm.
At midnight it shown almost as bright again then fading to darkness by 2pm when I finally went to bed.

Nedder Taft - Taft - Museum - Chapel - as seen from the Auld Haa

high beams lights

The School House
I took some of the colour out of this photo to make it more like what we actually see.
The camera collects light for many seconds while the eyes & brain go from moment to moment.

View from my South Light Studio looking north.

South Lighthouse

Stuart Hubbard - Guest Photographer

2012-03-18T04:47:00.002-07:00

Gentleman Siskin

We came into Fair Isle on the weekend of 16th March 2012, and stayed with Tommy, Liz and Henry at The Auld Haa. We - Shetland Film Club - came in to show films at the Fair Isle Hall on the Friday and Saturday night, but Fair Isle is a beautiful spot and it is always great to wander around to take in the sights; the shore in particular always has something of interest. We like to see the birds, although generally we have no idea what they are. On this occasion we were lucky enough to be accompanied by Tommy who said which was which, who was a regular and who was visiting.

And again. Hen seed is just fine

Fulmars having a chat

The mighty purple sandpiper

On the shore at South Harbour

Purple Sandpiper. This is my right side.

And this is my left side

I may or may not be a Dunlin?

On the park just South of The Auld Haa. My friend the turnstone is just out of shot on the left.

Fair Isle Methodist Chapel by night.

Complete with the Northern Lights!
Cheers, Stuart Hubbard
member of Islesburgh Photographic Club

Glowing Green For St.Patrick's Day! Aurora / Northern Lights

2012-03-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

I knew it was St. Patrick's Day...
when last night just after midnight the sky glowed green over the Methodist Chapel.

It must of been the luck of the Irish as it has been cloudy every night for the past few weeks!

The outside door light at Skerry Holm shown on the field below the Museum.

Barkland & Field as viewed from the school parking lot.

Sheep Rock
The lights on the horizon to the right Sumburgh & a boat.

The real trick is walking the hills near cliff tops after midnight...

The Snipe, Oystercatchers, Ducks & Geese where very disconcerting when flushed in the darkness.

The clouds closed in... better luck next time.

Kiss the Birds! Siskin, first of the year and it's eating out of our hands!.

2012-03-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

(Eurasian) Siskin Carduelis spinus

This Siskin showed up today at my feeder. The first one of the year seen on Fair Isle.
I had been expecting one as I know they always come when the the Daffodils are in bloom.
What I didn't expect was it to eat out of my hand!

As I stood still photographing the Siskin from 4 foot away it zipped of the feeder and cleaned it's beak on my shoulder! Wow! Then as I went to fill the feeder the hungry bird flew back to the feeder in my hands.

Soon the Siskin was eating out of my hands!

I knew Henry would want to see this. It was about 5pm. and Henry was playing with his friends, so I drove up to retrieve him from the school playground. We took turns taking photos while marvelling over this little hungry bird that had just traversed an ocean crossing. Male Siskins like this one are so beautiful with their flashes of yellow and black we are just loving it that we were able to have this close encounter.

I touched it with my nose... LOL!

Not to be out done... Henry kissed the bird!

A Time to Keep and other songs - Lise Sinclair - Performance & CD Music Release

2012-03-10T14:47:00.001-08:00

A Time to Keep and other songs

Piano / voices / fiddle / guitars / accordion / banjo / mandolin / toy piano / glockenspiel / harmonium / sansula

LISE SINCLAIR / INGE THOMSON / BRIAN CROMARTY

ÁSTVALDUR TRAUSTASSON / EWEN THOMSON

Icelandic translations by A∂ALSTEIN ASBERG SIGUR∂SSON

Live on the Fair Isle Stage!

PERFORMANCE DATES:

MARCH 2012

SUN 11 - Town Hall, Lerwick

THURS 15 - Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh

SAT 17 - Reykjavík, Iceland

ALBUMS ON SALE AT ALL PERFORMANCES

The stories in George Mackay Brown’s ‘A TIME TO KEEP’ are tales of life in all its small detail, set in the harsh and beautiful landscape of the Northern Isles. They are lit with the author’s precise, poetic touch and the characteristically understated Northern voice. The characters inhabit an unwritten history between the sagas and the 20^th century as if carefully gathered from time itself.

Lise Sinclair is a singer, songwriter and poet of that same landscape and its music and literary traditions — a native of Fair Isle, Britain’s most remote inhabited island, half way between Orkney and Shetland.

Lise has written a series of new songs that will bring the stories out of the book and connect the past with the present and the Northern Isles with Iceland, where George MacKay Brown drew reference and linked the Scottish and Nordic cultures as they are still lived in these Isles. Lise says that it wasn’t so much an idea that presented itself, as she “began to hear these songs on first reading the book, as if they were already there, singing out of George’s clear, lyrical prose.”

The music has been written in collaboration with Icelandic musician and composer, Ástvaldur Traustasson and recorded by a band of musicians from across the North Isles and Iceland, including Lise, Ástvaldur, Inge Thomson, Brian Cromarty, Ewen Thomson and poet and Icelandic translator A∂alstein Asberg Sigur∂sson. The band gathered from the North, in Edinburgh in January to rehearse and record the songs and will be releasing the album and performing the songs at a special series of concerts set to take place in the Isles, Edinburgh and Reyjavík in March 2012, at the end of the Year of Scottish Islands Culture.

The music is a rich tapestry of sound: voices, piano, fiddle, guitars, accordion, mandolin, banjo and harmonium, blending a wealth of tradition with what’s new in Scottish music and Icelandic jazz into songs which are a journey from beginning to end, through time, under wide island skies.

Would you like to buy a CD? it's double disk set in one regular, one with Icelandic.
You can contact Lise Sinclair at: lisesinclair@btinternet.com
or wait as they should be available on line soon.

2 CD Set - you'll love it!

A Time to Keep has 14 songs, here is the title track, a story of a fisherman-crofter in the elemental story of the islands, featuring the Fair Isle Chapel bell... and The Five of Spades, a tale of an Orkneyman and a gambler who sailed for Nova Scotia, it includes Brian Cromarty singing The Ballad of Check Harra...

http://soundcloud.com/lise-sinclair/the-five-of-spades

Stand up and take a bow!
A time to remember as it was a great evening with so many talented people.

Soponsored by Creative Scotland - Scottish Islands - Scottish Island Writers.

Supported by Shetland Arts

The Scottish Poetry Library - The Scottish Storytelling Centre.

& the estate of George Mackay Brown.

Thank you to Loganair for getting us from one island to another to sing.

Thank You Wintering Birds! welcome migrant birds!

2012-03-07T15:52:00.001-08:00

Is Winter over? Has Spring sprung?

Dunnock aka Hedge Sparrow
I have seen this bird in an out of my garden all winter long.

You would think I would have a better photo? but I don't. This bird is so shy and skulky. plus it is always on the move searching for something to eat. Not rare in Britain but noteworthy in Fair Isle & Shetland any time. If there are more than 2 or 3 Dunnocks wintering in Shetland this year I would be surprised. So it makes me happy to see it still alive and well as other migrant birds start to return.

Thank you little bird as you put a smile on my face many a bleak winter day.

Other birds that help pass away the few hours of daylight over the winter are Iceland & Glaucous Gulls though I have not seen either in the past 2 weeks. We have had Water Rail & a Coot. We have a few robins about the island plus Blackbirds, Fieldfares, Redwings and a Song Thrush or two. On the beach I can always find Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones and Rock Pipits during winter but I'm always thrown when they show up in my garden? Few Twite stay all winter but their numbers are increasing now. I saw some colour ringed Twite return on the Feb 29th most with Fair Isle colours but one with yellow over blue / metal over red just like I saw last year on March 3rd. I'm sure they were of by a day or 2 because of leap year.

Twite

New migrant birds have started arriving in the past few days, Black Redstart & Mistle Thrush were seen by Nick. While I added Reed Bunting, Wood Pigeon, Shelduck & Ringed Plover to the Fair Isle's year list. Neil also reported the first Pied Wagtail!

Reed Bunting

Oystercatchers! numbers increased dramatically on Feb. 24th - 56 in this photo.
Plus more on Meoness, South Harbour Beach, Skadden & Geos around the Lighthouse.
I don't know about the rest of the island?

The big Daffodils are blooming in my garden and there is frog spawn in Golden Water.
The day is a mix of glorious sun, grey clouds, hail & quick rain showers.
The high winds are making huge waves from the west and the afternoon plane was cancelled.
If you like variety what's not to like?

This is how we clean the pool on Fair Isle.

Waves coming in of the Atlantic side today.

The lighthouse is well over 26 Metres high I would guess the waves are more than 10 metres?

Happy Birthday Jimmy A. Stout! 101 years old today.

2012-03-07T03:08:00.000-08:00

James A. Stout

Also know as Myers Jimmy or Jimmy Midway

One Hundred & One years old today!

Fair Isle & Shetland wishes you Happy Birthday!

The Stout's Family Yoal Boat - Fair Isle - July 19th 2007

Story of Jimmy's Historic Birdwatchinghttp://fair-isle.blogspot.com/2011/03/living-legend-james-stout-100-years-of.html

Royal Scotland National Orchestra - Fair Isle, Shetland - Outer Isles Project

2012-03-03T01:42:00.002-08:00

Fair Isle's Lise Sinclair - Neil Thomson play with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Jane Reid - Rosina Alter -Duncan Swindells - Rachel Bull in the Fair Isle Hall last night. The ensemble took part in a live web cast part of the RSNO's The Outer Isle Project broadcasting live from Fair Isle, Skerries, Unst, Foula & Lerwick. And it worked!

Live from Skerries to Fair Isle.

Fair Isle Is heard in Unst, Skerries & Foula as seen on the screen.

And it was brilliant! Have a listen.

Scotland's orchestra connects with Scotland’s most northerly communities.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) embarks on its most geographically ambitious residential endeavour in the UK – Out and About in Shetland – five days of rehearsals and performances, education and community activities, and workshops and masterclasses across the Islands from Thursday 1 to Monday 5 March 2012. in the Year of Creative Scotland, Out and About in Shetland forms the most northerly element of Music Nation, a UK-wide weekend of music making and the first nationwide countdown event to the London 2012 Festival.

For more information on the activities of the RSNO during Out and About in Shetland go towww.rsno.org.uk or contact Shetland Box Office on 01595 745555 or www.shetlandboxoffice.org

A Bit of the White Stuff! Waves on the High Seas.

2012-02-27T17:22:00.001-08:00

An unusual day...
Sunny with blue skies, but with strong winds coming of the Atlantic.
Not the biggest storm but the light was fantastic.

(for comparison a calm day.)

What an amazing sight to see! I think the waves must of been 20 ft. high? I have no idea what the wind speed was but it was hard to stand or walk. I found it nearly impossible to take a photo with out salt spray covering on the camera lens. I had to clean the lens between every photo. I hid behind walls and rocks while taking these photos.

The South Harbour was protected from the west winds but look at the waves exploding on the Skerries!

Henry got a real kick out of this football I found wash up the the burn leading from the Scrape.