shetland on camera

Well, went to scotland on holiday, whit weather i had, rain rain and more rain. i posted on facebook that i was going to the highlands wae my camera, and Lynne from n/wales suggested to me [ she is one of our members ] why not come to wales, so i did, i had wanted to visit gigrin farm, where they feed the red kites, its in mid wales, so Lynne kindly took me, and what a sight we both had, at one time i counted 71 kites circling the site, it was amazing to watch them, we also went a walk along the river wye, Lynne spotted a kingfisher, i missed it.. Lynne was the perfect host.. thank you Lynne..

Then it was back to scotland, to my daughters home in strathclyde, i had to get back for my grandaughters 18th birthday.. thats Robyn, she is also on this website..

It was still raining, parts of the M6 were difficult to drive, as the rain was so heavy, and the spray did'nt help either.. but i made it in the end..

I still had to have a wee trip to the highlands, of course it was still raining, so i set off on a very miserable day, but between showers i did manage to get some photos, but the rain won in the end, and i turned the car round just passed bridge of awe near Taynuilt after the pass of brander, got some nice photos of the pass at the hollow mountain cafe..

A few days after i came home to shetland, i heard on the news that the road over the rest and be thankful was blocked by a avalance, thats the same road that i took. whew, glad it did'nt happen when i passed..

It was strange leaving shetlands beautiful summer [ almost drought conditions ] to find so much rain in scotland england and of course WALES..

I think my next visit next year will start with booking into a chalet in the Oban area, as i do know that Pinemartens habit that area, and i would just love to get my own photos of these beautiful animals..

Till the next time, take care, and it would be nice to see your posts also.. bye.. fur da noo..

First of all.. Hi. Joc.. This evening I joined your website.. when I get time i'll post some photos.. but this week is going to be busy, i'm meeting maureen i think on thursday..[maureen is a member on here, and is up here on holiday] then i'm off on holiday to scotland for three weeks at my daughters home, my grandaughter is flying south on the following monday, she is staying on shetland for the big bannock at north roe next saturday.. i will be taking my laptop with me, and if i get nice pics, i will post them on here.. i have plans to visit the rspb at lochwinnoch and the muirsheild country park, i hope to see some interesting birds while there.. my grandaughter and me have been out and about most days, [she loves it here] we have been almost everywhere, from the north to the south end of the island and of course the west side, st.ninians isle in particular.. so all i have to do now is find an otter for maureen & her family, hopefully I will spot one or two for them..

take care. from george..

This is just to say sorry to all of you who use piclens.. i have lost all my feed links, but you should still view my photos individually.... it all started because xulrunner prevented me from using mozila, so instead of repairing it.. i used int/exp... big mistake... now i can't get it back online.. my grandson is a wizard with computers, but is off the island for six weeks.. he is at collage near glasgow, 

regards.

george..

I took two of my grandaughters out with me yesterday, we headed to the cliffs at eshaness, I wanted to get a few photos of the cliffs for my scenery album.. now these two g/daughters are typical o any seventeen year old lasses, you know what i mean, talking about the boys, what they were going to get up too, and of course texting every five minutes, they are a right pair o jokers but great company, we headed up north, then stopped for lunch at the braewick cafe, excellent meal as usual, then up to the cliffs.. Robyn & Iona were to scared to go to the top o the cliffs and opted to wait in the car, I think they just told me that, as i think they wanted to make their plans for their eighteenth birthday, i have a sneaking suspicion that they are planning a booze/cruise, the theme is a mardi-gras, i think, so i headed off to  go and take my photos, not before they warned me to stay away from the edge, aw their so cute to be thinking o my welfare.. i think..

So i did get my photos, they are not too bad, the sky is a bit blown in them, but who cares, the cliffs themselves are so nice to see.. so i made my way back to my car, the girls asked for a shot of my camera, so i gave them it, i noticed they were pointing it at me,  I was across the road having a wee puff oot o a ciggi..

Then it was off home, Iona suddenly remembered that she forgot to hang the football teams strip out to dry, and it was training night in lerwick.. she is in big trouble wae her dad... he.he.

This blog is one I wrote for another forum, hope you don't mind..

It outlines the story of how I got to get my first decent photos of this very elusive rapter [ uk smallest one ]....

The merlin..

One of my sons was out walking the moors a week ago, when two merlins started to mob him.. he thought that their nest site must have been nearby..

He was telling me this yesterday.. so I asked him if he would lead me to the site..

So off we went..

It was app. one mile from the nearest road, it was very hard going for me,and I was thinking.. when we get to the site, there probably left the nesting area.

So when we eventually got there, there were fiveof them two adults and three fledglings, they flew off in all directions, one was about fifteen feet below me, the site is in a very secluded valley, and we were halfway up a very steep slope..

So we sat down and watched for a wee while, nothing was seen, so I had a look through my binoculars.. I was tracking them along a fence which ran up and over the ridge opposite.. then I spotted one on top of one of the fence posts.. so I took a few photos of it, but it was quite far away..

So we started to walk back to the road when Allan said there is one straight ahead of us.. it was flying very close to the ground [as they do ]

It then landed on a clump of heather, so we kept very low and stalked it, we used depressions in the hillside so the bird did'nt see us..

When we got to about fifty or sixty feet from it.. I stood up very very slowly raised the camera and took many pictures of it.. then It must have spotted me and flew off heading back up the valley we had just left..

Hi.

         I've added some R.T.Divers to my [ birds 2 album ]

To see them in the best way, if you upload cooliris, you will see them in almost 3 D..

just watch the blue loading line at the bottom of the image, when it gets to the right hand side, the  picture will focus..

PS. a couple of my albums have lost the link.. but you can still look at them in the old way.. thank you all for looking at them. it is appreciated..

enjoy... regards from geordie..

Added 21-06-09... 3 pics. added today, Arctic Tern in flight..

Hi all.. i've added more otter pics, they are in the otters 2 album..

Geordie..

,

Sat. 4th April..

                                   I headed into Lerwick on saturday, it was really misty, but the sea was flat calm, i boarded the ferry, then waited for it to set sail.

                                                                                            I had steak and onion pie wae new potatos een peas, for lunch, it was really nice.. then the captain made made a wee comment ower the tannoy, the weather.... we will be getting strong S.Westerly winds but it might not be to bad.. oh aye.. i've heard that wan before.. so geordie slunk off to my cabin.. i did'nt really get much sleep, with the ship pitching and rolling, even juddering, it was'nt too nice, but we made Aberdeen dock, and disenbarked at 0700am.. i arrived at my daughters house in Paisley at 10am.. this time i did;nt get any speeding tickets... it took 186miles from my village to Paisley PLUS the 200miles sea journey, 12hours on da ferry... the trip was quite good from Aberdeen to Paisley, then me and one of my grandsons left for Glasgow.. to PCWorld for another PC.. we only travelled about 1mile when i heard a rumble from the front o da car.. i stopped, got out to investigate whit it wis.. it was a punture in the front offside tyre.. oh dear.. haven't had wan o dem fur years.. never mind.. it was only £105 to get another wan [ it was wan o dem 18'' low-profile wans ]  the da good thing wis.. i still got my new super doopper wide screen laptop.. he.he.  OH nearly forgot.. plus wan o daa router thingys, i used ta tink dat a router wis only fur joiners een carpentersrolleyes   ..my wee lassie kept me busy today, doing some DIY oboot hur hoose, so that kept me oot o trouble... i had a good look at da new seat toledo exeo.. i might get wan in December, as my current toledo TDI sport will be two years old come December... there again, i might be up there in da clouds taking photos, as we canna live forever.. he.he.

                                                                Right then bairns, i'll sign off da noo. but i'll keep your informed of whit i get up to on my holiday....

                                                          take care.. Geordie..

I found a stone in a stream up in the hills, it was shimmering with gold flecks, thats what caught my eye, the reason I was in the hills was, I wanted to take photos of a really old ruined croft, it had a small stream running past it, so I took a wander up the stream and noticed this stone in the water, I posted a photo of it in the northmavine forum, and got a few answers back, now one of the persons who gave a reply was the man who runs www.shetlandgeology.com so I met up with him, and he told me it was an interesting find.. BUT.. it was muscovite mica.. he said that there is gold in the hills of shetland, but not enough to make it viable... so a wee bit of disappointment.. made up by the fact that when I was going to meet him, I spotted an otter in garths voe, so i got some photoes of it.. then after seeing the man, i went further north, and spotted my first R.T. Diver of the year.. then I spotted four Snow Buntings...

                                            Then yesterday I took a wee walk along the banks to see what I could spot, then set up my camera on the tripod, then waited and waited, a family of tourist came up to me and asked what i was hopeing to photograph.. i told them OTTERS.. they got a wee bit excited, so i told them a wee bit about them, and where to watch for them,, but they eventually left, just after they left, a few seconds only.. what pops up right in front of me, Otters, it was great getting them on camera as most of my photos of them have been all handheld.. but this time i got them wae da camera on the tripod and the remote cord.. I've put the new photos on the Otter album...

                                                                                            Take care..  Geordie..