There's not much will make me miss Wimbledon but a trip to Shetland wins game set & match. And so, on the second Monday of the championship, you find me in Fair Isle - the most southerly of the Shetland Islands. I'm lucky to have been here quite a few times and I love it. We're staying at the new Bird Observatory - the first group to do so since they opened in the spring: in fact the official opening is to be held here on Saturday. I was a bit wary about the whole thing as the old "Obs" (as it is affectionately known) had such a brilliant atmosphere and that could so easily have been lost in a modern building. Not so. It's fabulous. The rooms are all en suite and very spacious and comfortable and the public areas the same. And the food is utterly fabulous. No choice, but no need for one when what's served is of such high quality. On the first night we had one of the best fish pies I've ever had and yesterday's Sunday lunch was superb.
On the birding side, there's not much about at this time of year and seabird numbers are severely down on the last time I was here. There are researchers here, two studying seabirds and two starlings. Outside a nesting Fair Isle Wren sings its heart out most of the day while Twite and Siskin hang around the feeders.
We've been in Shetland a week already and it's been wonderful. The weather has been kind to us - not warm, but mostly dry with occasional showers and a couple of wet evenings. We spent the first three nights in Unst which has Britain's most northerly everything and then drove down through Yell (stopping at Burravoe where we found a couple of otters fishing) back to Mainland. Then it was a 25-minute flight on an 8-seater Islander aircraft to Fair Isle in excellent conditions with wonderful views on the way and landing on a dirt runway. Shetland is where pilots come for their short take off and landing training!
This afternoon we return to Mainland where we'll spend 3 nights based in Lerwick before returning to Aberdeen on the overnight ferry on Thursday. As always time has sped by but it's been a very happy week with a great bunch of people (like Island Holidays groups tend to be!) and I think we'll all be wishing it could go on a bit longer. Never mind - there's always next year. I've put this link in to our Shetland page but we've not yet finalised the costing so it won't have the 2012 details until the middle of next week. Check out the news section on our website for updates.
Comments