We are recruiting. If you want to find rare birds and witness spectacular falls & live among 30,000 Manx Shearwaters get your application in for the Bardsey Island Assistant job (Mar-Oct 2026) before 10 Dec. Apply here: tinyurl.com/2026-Assista... #RareBirdAlert #BardseyIsland #ConservationJob

As I'm planning next years field season, I wonder if anyone on here would like to run a small island project on Skúvoy with me. I will be catching and samling great skuas, but there will be good opportunities to investigate other aspects of seabird island ecology 🌍🧪 #seabirds

Well, it might no live up tae d recent images o N'thern Long-t Tit on Shetland, but I wis d only 'non-islander' tae catch d Whalsay bird (d crossin on d ferry wisna half something!), nearly flyin into us at times n the pissin rain, utter magic, I've had 1 in my freezer since 2016, not as lively!

A eventful non-bird 24hours in Shetland this week. Migration slow (understatement) but got a call and picked up a dead bat from Yell to be ID'd by our local expert, then Storm Petrel from a local fishing boat to be released. And the Blue Shark the day before on St Ninians after dipping Snow Goose

Plenty o wild Dog Rose berry still to be found, but non-native Wood Mice ir giving me some competition! 1 bush I found down a cliff had 100s o half eaten mounds, thankfully still some nice big berry to gather n grow on the next gen, but shows that natural spread will struggle here with INN-mammals

So far a good looking season on Mousa fir Euro Storm Petrel, both on the long-term study plots in the dyke waas o the isle while in the other day, and elsewhar, good some seabirds are managing and to hear of the studies on Stormies bringing up good results

Some red gold found this week, a wild relic Shetland Honeysuckle with about 100 berries on it, rare I've ever seen more than a couple per plant, n given each berry rarely holds more than 1-2 seeds (up2 -6), each berry goes a long way to growing the next gen

Not often nowadays I find my own Shetland-tick, and glad I bothered to look at the 'odd seagull' going in circles as I was looking at wildflowers! A long-awaited Shetland bird, only been about 10 years since I got Black Kite up here

Enroute back from Mongolia and seemed wrong no to drop into Musselburgh fir the Marsh Sandpiper, certainly closer views than most o the birds when I wis farther east! A nice Scottish tick to start off the autumn

2 new additions to the local Shetland tree fauna, possibly 2 new Salix aurita sites, near to areas believed extinct, one of these only 10s of metres from the main road and the other taking numerous attempts to find

Shetland Kale, planted on the croft at the start of the month, finally starting to perk up, hopefully come autumn it'll be a good refugia for insects and ideally I'll pop my head over the dyke to a rare bird or 2! Otherwise it will be used as a seed stock for future crops and leftovers fir the kye

Woodpigeon continuing to just be bonkers, shoved my walking stick in this hole to see how deep it was, WP flew out and found a C2! Practically underground, ground nesting probably common up here but not often found, Merlin pair around too!

1/ Montbretia (Crocosmia sp/var) a pretty hellish but attractive invasive, regularly planted in Shetland gardens and now spreading onto the roadside (if not deliberately planted) along side plenty o other invasives, now the slow process of removal, it's doable but needing a few extra hands!

Amazing discovery today out surveying #Merlin for #Shetland Raptor Study Group - this magnificent 2 day old Short-eared Owlets! Only 5th confirmed record. Bizarrely, with somewhat flukey owl finding fortune, these are the 4th I’ve found. #fieldwork @btoscotland.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social

Certainly one of the more odd colour morphs I've seen in birds (car brakes wir slammed!), a 'dark'/melanistic Greylag Goose (unless there's another name fir this colour variation) around Scatsta Airport, polar opposite from the Ross' Goose a few months back!

Early morning ferry over to Unst for Dave Cooper's Serin was a welcome splash o colour, thankfully gave me the excuse to revisit a possible new Willow site I found the other week, a first look at a undocumented+healthy supply of what I'll probably call S. aurita, amazed its no been picked up afore!

Among the 10% most read papers in Nordic Journal of Botany in 2023! 🌍🧪🪻 nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

There's always someone watching... Greylag on eggs on a crag, my first oot of heather, certainly a good view point, found whilst trying to locate some relic trees on nearby crags

A bit o recent dabbling into local plant conservation showing success, seeds collected off Shetland's only Sea Kale (Crambe maritima) finally coming to after years of failing to propagate, handy to visit as just next to the local Tesco!

It really does amaze me the persistence o our relic trees. A Salix aurita x repens hybrid, one of 6 surviving on this burn on mainland Shetland, growing over 2m in length over stone, an unfortunate common state o our local trees, at least theirs still a chance to propagate even these ones!

Took advantage o y'days calm day, n kayaked oot to Vementry isle to see rare local Willows, sheep grazing elsewhere on the isle, but no evidence on the holms with Willows, which ir doing well, plenty o Salix aurita & cinerea, makes a change, now need to make it again for the coastal Junipers

Given its moved to mainland, I might as well put my piece up from my Bufflehead trip to Foula last week, my final Shetland outer island ticked aff and what a place! bird was flightly so gave plenty of opportunity to explore, even got to 1 of the peaks, but looking forward to a proper summer visit!

I've finally joined d exodus 2 BlueSky, to sum up my move, I'm a keen grower of native tree species n rare crops n ensuring local genetics, birder and keen twitcher (and I'm sure you'll see a post if I manage Foula on Friday), otherwise ZRSG chair, photo by Alex Penn o wir local CR Sparrowhawks