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Day 4: Oystercatchers and Puffins

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I was excited this morning because not only was this my first chance to start to explore the Fair Isle but the weather was fine and sunny....for the moment. I packed some sandwiches and a flask and we set off towards the light house. There are birds flying all around and at such high speeds around the steep dark cliffs, that is not always easy to identify them.  Oystercatchers are everywhere. You will probably recognise them as they often live in fields or on moorland. They are very distinctive, they have bright reddish pink legs, an orange- red bill and black and white feathers, but there most distinctive feature is their call (look this up). When they fly you can see a big white V shape across their wings. They eat cockles (a small shellfish)by hammering the shells with their flattened end of their beak or prising them open. Read more about them here  This is what I saw We stopped for lunch. The sun was shining and the sea was a beautiful blue colour. I could see seals looki...
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Day 11: Tall Ships, Tall Tales and a Fish Supper

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  Chris and I had planned a walk today, but when I returned from coffee with John and Dave, there was a note on the table in the croft which said 'GONE FISHING.' Chris had been invited by Steven, who owned the only fishing boat on the island, to go fishing with him and the opportunity was too good to miss. I will tell you what he caught later.  As I had heard some of the tall ships from Lerwick were in the North Haven, I decided to do the walk as planned. Tall ships are traditionally rigged sailing vessels and are very impressive. The ships in the harbour are part of the tall ships race - you can see more pictures and a map of where they sail here  This ship is called Trinovante - look this ship up After a good look at the ships, I walked onto the headland called Bu Ness. There is a colony of Arctic Terns nesting hear as well as many Puffins. As I reached the top of the hill, I looked down to sheep rock and guess what I saw?  Can you see that tiny dot in the se...
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Day 5: A Long Way from Anywhere

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  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'...
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Day 16/17: Homeward Bound

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  Well I suppose it had to happen at some point, 7am we arrived at North Haven and boarded the Good Shepherd IV. Captained by our friend Steven, the ferry bares more than a passing resemblance to a trawler and certainly behaves like one on the open sea. I was assured the crossing would be good but I had taken lots advice from locals about seasickness and I intended to follow it to the letter.  Fair FairFair Two hours later (and only one bout of sickness ) we arrived in Sumburgh (Shetland). A kind island resident, Matti who was also travelling on the GS, gave us a lift up to Lerwick. The Aberdeen Ferry was not due to leave until 7pm so we had six or so hours in which to explore Lerwick.  After lunch we explored Lerwick and eventually ended up in a cafe called Blyde. We got talking to the owner who had lived in Yorkshire (small world). Soon after his third cousin once removed arrived and noticed Chris's mandolin and asked if we were musicians. We told her all about our...
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Day 14: Packing and Party

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Our priority today was to make sure that we were ready for Amy to pick us up and take us to the airport for our flight back to Shetland tomorrow. We cleaned the croft, packed  and then went for a last wander;  I had spent the last two weeks  looking for whales and dolphins, without success, so this was also my last chance to sea watch. This place has the biggest clouds I saw many puffins on the sea...   I saw a huge ship on the horizon... .....a lot of horizon...... ... but I did not see a whale!  We spent our last evening with Steven. He made us a fantastic fish supper of haddock and lobster (from the Sunday catch). Showed us his collection of ancient objects and treated us to an extraordinary DJ set: never a dull moment on Fair Isle and always a surprise! We walked home at 11.30 and it was still quite light. As we walked we could hear the drumming of the snipe a very strange sound in deepening twilight! Listen to it here
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Day 15: The Last Day....or so we thought!

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  It is hard to believe that after two weeks of being on Fair Isle, that we have actually come to the end of our time here. It has been an amazing experience and it has been a privilege to be involved the community here. We had done all the cleaning and the croft looked like it had when we arrived.  We had said our goodbyes to everyone and stared one last time at the view. We packed our bags and went to the end of the drive to wait for our lift to the airport. Both of us were a little worried as the island was shrouded in a typical Fair Isle mist and it wasn't long before we got the news that the plane would not be flying today. Fortunately, the owners of the Fair Isle Studio had agreed that if there were any problems, we could stay a bit longer. We booked on the Good Shepherd IV (ferry) for 7am the following morning and settled down for a bonus day.  We were invited to a 'tune' at the village hall. A 'tune' is a music night is where everyone brings instruments, sin...
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Day 13: Preparing for Home

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  It is now Monday and we are due to travel home on Wednesday. As there is a weight limit on the plane, we have to pack up some of our stuff; books, easel, paintings and treasures we have found on the beach  because they will make our bags too heavy. We filled boxes in the morning and, after a cup of coffee, set out for the post office. This is the only shop on the island but Robert and Fiona make sure that it has everything you need ....as well as some surprises!   We were a bit sad when we got back to the croft. It was going to be hard to leave this beautiful place and the people that had been so kind to us.  The bird is a Wheatear We made ourselves another cup of coffee, sat in the sun and looked and listened and enjoyed the peace till the sun got low in the sky. This is a view I will never forget.
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