The puffins are coming back. Soon there will be nearly 1000000 puffins around the U.K. 😊😊😊😊 #puffin

SOC Members' Talk - Wednesday 20th March 7.30pm

Members should have received details of our upcoming online talk, where experts from NatureScot, RSPB Scotland and BTO will be discussing the impacts of Avian Flu on our bird populations.

#birdflu #SOC #avianfly #ornithology

Best way to welcome spring #Shetland #SpringEquinox

Dream finds on #Shetland yesterday with my first hamburger bean, a huge sea heart with goose barnacle attachment, a blackmouth catshark eggcase & several Starry Skate eggcases. Nature in Shetland The Shark Trust

With perfect timing, on #WorldBookDay , book news. A deal to write the successor to my #OrchidSummer ! There's been some change in the British & Irish orchid scene. Lots of juicy news, discoveries, science, gossip, people doing things they might wish they hadn't... All good fun.😉

Review of the Week: 26 February-3 March 2024

Wintering goodies continued to attract crowds as the excitement of spring slowly advanced: bit.ly/3T0xtuO

The BTO is advertising a vacancy for Garden BirdWatch Survey Organiser: bit.ly/3V8ym78

David Steel Less than two months until Puffins return to their clifftop burrows, beneath Sumburgh Head Lighthouse. #SuperSeabirdSunday

Red-necked Grebe update - Andrew Harrop found the corpse on Quendale beach this morning and we measured it in our garage - wing 198, bill 56.0, tarsus 63.9 - which makes it a male holbollii Nature in Shetland RareBirdAlertUK BirdGuides

Bookings for the SOC and BTO Scotland Scottish Birdwatchers' Conference 2024 are open!

Held in Troon, the conference will focus on the birds and other wildlife found across Ayrshire, from pollinator networks to seabirds.

To book your place, go to: the-soc.org.uk/support-us/eve…

The first, calm, sunny day in what felt like forever, so I suggested to Susannah we had our morning brew outside. She immediately found this Crane (so I get at least half the finders credit for suggesting the outside tea, right?). Comfortably Fair Isle's earliest ever record.

2nd winter Iceland Gull in freezing temperatures & sleet today in Lerwick Harbour, with 1st winter Glaucous Gull & Little Gull also present. #Shetland BirdGuides Nature in Shetland #StormHour OM SYSTEM Cameras

Monthly Report, January 2024 - Shetland Winter: Wind, Waves and Snow rossmac.blogspot.com/2024/02/monthl…

🌟Visiting a Bird Observatory? Apply for our Young Bird Observatory Visitors programme! 🐦

📆 Our first round of applications for 2024 are now open! Close at 11.59pm GMT Monday 19 February.

🔗 Visit bto.org/ybov for further details.

#BTOYouth #YoungBirdObservers

This Minor Light was placed at Muckle Roe until 2001, when it was replaced by a lower maintenance version. A few years later, the pre-fab panels were reconstructed at Sumburgh Head, in our customer car park, as a ‘welcome beacon’ to visitors. #pharosfriday

Icicles as thick as my arm, some over a metre long, today in #Shetland . Our latest cold snap still has some teeth.

Ice Pancakes have returned to Shetland.

Dogs are to be banned on a section of a Suffolk beach in order to protect nesting Ringed Plovers: bit.ly/3SOdGzW

Beauty and the beast. Upper Kergord yesterday: note how the white turbines fade in the distance in these conditions. Some research has suggested that painting alternate blades black can reduce bird strikes, e.g. bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

Shetland in the snow ❄️