Shetland (2) – Houss

The day started off bright and sunny and I took advantage of it for a small potter around the neighbourhood, first discovering the not so native wildlife, in the form of emus and wallabies. I was more interested in finding native wildlife, but the hoped for curlews were not in sight, although I did find an obliging pair of wrens.

I then headed along to the shore, startling plenty of rabbits and lapwings along the way. I was treated to fly bys from fulmar, lapwings, a bonxie and what I think were a group of whimbrel but nothing that I managed to get decent photos of.

I finally lucked out with a group of 3 ruddy turnstones (in non-breeding plumage) who were too busy feeding in the seaweed to be too perturbed by my presence.

I finished my walk with a short leg inland back to Jen’s place in the hope of finding some signs of the otter. I think I spotted some spraint amongst the geese and sheep droppings, but I’m not totally sure.

A couple hours later the weather changed and the rain came pouring down. Time to settle in with a cup of cocoa and my knitting – my sock is coming along apace. Given the weather, no walks planned for this evening, but a visit to the moving pictures in Lerwick instead, to see ‘Children of the Snow Land’, a documentary about Nepali teenagers, which is showing as part of the Screenplay festival.