Got to love a curlew

 We were busy tidying up our lounge as we took everything out of the cupboard to let the engineer fix sky. It got a bit boring so we took as a short drive to Sandness.

It was very gloomy but we found a lovely poser of a Curlew who let us watch it for ages.

There wasn't much at the beach, just a few turnstones and ringed plover. There was a Great Northern Diver fishing off the shoreline.

The car park  added Wren and Rock Pipit to our year.

And we saw a Grey Heron Flying taking us to 43.

Not many hares about today but we found this one chilling close to the road.

At  Walls we found 11 mergansers and at Burrastow lots of Seals.

Told you it was gloomy!

Out of the window

 The snow has gone but the wind is still blowing well. Two nights ago there was an Aurora and some of the cloud broke up about midnight. Trouble is, if it's 60 mph wind you don't get away with slow shutter speed. So, it was time to hang out of the velux and use the window as a bit of a windbreak 

It was still pretty even with the cloud.

With the wind it makes it hard to get out for Rob, but we did make it to our friends Finley and Catherine for a lovely coffee and chat, it was a good catch up.  Catherine had kindly got a Hall ticket for us for UHA for our guest 

Today Rob is still at home doing the next level of Paperwork concerning the  heating flood. He is also liaising with the parliamentary office. Interestingly after our article in the paper, others have approached the MP over similar issues, so that is good . We have such a good MP which is a novelty.

Jill popped to town to get some decorating bits and bobs, and a bit of shopping. The waves in town were stunning. Got a bit damp!

Quick Melt.

 It started melting in earnest yesterday, with inevitable issues 

Today there were still patches around but mainly where it had drifted. We had a quick drive round Sandness as we haven't had the chance for a Jan 1st birdwatch.

We got 40 species which wasn't bad as it was so dull and got dark quickly..

Raven, hooded crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Purple Sandpiper, Oystercatcher, Fieldfare, Turnstone, Curlew,  Chaffinch,  Herring Gull, Common Gull, Kittiwake,  Black backed Gull,  tystie, Guillemot, Shag,  red throated diver, Great Northern Diver,  long tailed duck, teal, mallard, wigeon, tufted duck, collared dove, starling, blackbird, house sparrow, Greylags, mute swan, cormorant, rock dove, golden eye, snipe,  goldcrest, fulmar, moorhen, collared dove.

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