Day 5: A Long Way from Anywhere

 


This is a map of the Fair Isle it is about 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide




It is described as the most remote inhabited island in the Britain and is at least 24 miles from Shetland. It sits in between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Where the two seas meet, the water can be very rough and dangerous and there are lots of stories about shipwrecks around the island. The blue dot is where I am staying and the arrow is where we saw the Humming-bird Hawk Moth.

The Humming-bird - Hawk-moth

I have seen loads of birds on the island and I will show you some more in the next post, but today I saw a Humming-bird Hawk-moth. You can see them all over Britain but you don't see them very often so it was a real treat. They are named  Humming-bird Hawk-moth because their behaviour is very similar to a Humming bird (they are tiny and flap their wing super quick so they can hover).  It was really hard to get a picture of the moth as it was so quick. Here is a picture but the video's below will give you a much better ideas of what it is like.





You can tell how fast they flap their wings in order to hover and drink the sweet nectar from the flowers in my video ....its in slow motion and it still looks fast! 


It is unusual to have such good weather on the Fair Isle, but when the sun shines and the breeze is gentle, it is a wonderful place. The only sounds are the calling seabirds. You can hear the Gannets on this video. They are truly beautiful birds and they nest on the sheer cliffs you can see. Can you believe they are raising chicks there? More about Gannets soon as they are my favourite sea bird. 




 


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