Back from Shetland

We've just got back from a wonderful week in Shetland! The weather was good, the scenery amazing and the wildlife wonderful from the dolphins in Aberdeen Harbour as we waited for our ferry to leave on the way up to the bonus trip past Noss cliffs and the breeding seabird colony on the ferry on the way back!

We stayed at the wonderful West Hall Bed and Breakfast, where we could watch seals and various seabirds from the bedroom windows, and hired a car to travel all round the mainland of Shetland and got ferries to many of the smaller islands.

Highlights included:

a late night trip to Moussa to see the storm petrels, tiny birds that nest in the old stone walls and buildings on the island;

puffins at Sumburgh head

wonderful beaches including Quendale

adorable lambs everywhere

and the best otter sighting ever!

Sadly we didn't see red necked phalaropes, they don't seem to have arrived back from their wintering grounds yet, but you can't have everything you want in life and that's just a good excuse to go back to Shetland again in the future! 

I'll post more about the highlights over the next few days and will incorporate some of them into my blog posts for 30 Days Wild, which starts in a couple of days!