The Yorkshire Terrier dog pack reconvened to hit the north, with a week on Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Isles.
Unst is remote. Really remote. It is 476 miles door to door from York as the Rubythroat flies, substantially further than the Isles of Scilly, or Paris. Bergen, Norway, is not much further away. The journey took a long time and involved three car journeys, two ferry crossings and a flight. The latter was pretty nerve-wracking, as the pilot landed the aircraft on his second attempt at Sumburgh Airport, Shetland, in virtually zero visibility, the island being completely fogbound. On our first attempt, a young Gannet had to take evasive action as we dropped out of the fog over the sea. Absolute scenes!
Our birding got off to a good start with a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers and a Terrier-found Wryneck in the pines behind the Setters housing estate at Baltasound. Off we go!
We arrived in Norwick at the northeast corner of Unst, after dark, but here is a pic of our bungalow (the white place on the right) which would be home for the next week.
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| Siberian Lesser Whitethroat which resided on our Norwick patch all week, and one of four or five seen on the island |
Over the next week or so, I will post a few blogs about some of the highlights of birding this remote corner of Britain.
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