We went back down to the south end yesterday to drop Anna off at her hotel – she was staying one night at The Sumburgh Hotel as she was up at the crack of sparrows (early) leaving on the first flight.

Obviously we had to hike up to the Lighthouse to show Anna the abundance of puffins that flit everywhere and are almost so close you can pick them up.  Look, look!

We searched everywhere for ages – even taking photos of other nesting birds, mostly out of boredom.

Despite the obvious dearth of Fratercula arctica, the sea-pinks were amazing. They carpeted the cliffs and that was an incredible sight just on its own.

When suddenly a singular puffin dropped out of the sky in front of us.  Brilliant.

And then he vanished into his burrow but one is better than none.

And that was it.  We were on a schedule, so we walked down the hill again to the car, stopping off to look for more birds.

At the other cliff edge, there was some guillemots (according to Daisy who did a project in Primary School).  I will take her word for it as every child in Shetland does a project in Primary School about nesting seabirds apparently and she studies Biology at university so she knows everything (again, apparently!)

We saw a nesting JCB.  Does that count?  I skilfully identified this.

My new camera is fabulous and I had great fun “playing” with all the buttons.

I have decided the best way to learn how something works is to use it and find out like that.  I can’t RTFM. It bores me.

  

So off to dinner at The Spiggie Hotel, which was delicious – the way forward is Scotch eggs made out of blackpudding and haggis and yes, I will be having a go at that.

And then we dropped Anna off at her hotel, and we said our goodbyes.  Apparently she wants to come back!