The Shetland Islands are a "must have been" location for sea birds and coastal landscapes, Orkney is unique due to its neolithic heritage and Scotlands western coast is famous for landscape, wildlife and destilleries! Enough reasons to go there!

The Blog is devided into three, seperate linked blogs from North to the South, from Shetland to Orkney and finally the westcoast! Lets start with the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland!

The Shetlands are closer to Norway than to England, much closer. They are as far north as Bergen in Norway and for a long time have been part of the different scandinavian kingdoms. The vikings settled there and used them as stepping stone to Faroer, Iceland and eventually North America. Only due to an unpaid dowry (the archipelago was used as a pawn) they ended up as a part of Scotland. Some viking "traditions" are still alive. The Shetlanders want to be different!

But most visitors come for the nature and wildlife, even if there are lots of world class historic sites to be seen as well.

I was guiding again and we kept our schedule flexible to be able to react to weather and personal preferences. Flexibility however has its limits. Accomodation is very limited on the islands in general and even more on the more remote or smaller islands like Unst, Yell or Foula.

Since the TV crime series "Shetland" (Mord auf Shetland) the popularity of the islands started to rise and the number of tourists started to exceed the capacity of hotels or B&B's during the summer season. You have to book well in advance!

Nature on Shetland can be wild and the storms vicious, but the islands are also famous for the days with golden evening light, which seems to never end. The locals call it simmer dim. This year it was the first time ever that I did not see a sunset on Shetland. We had lots of sun and of course our share of stormy and rainy days, but never a true sunset. Moreover it was unusual cold as well. In whatever location I was this year, the weather defied the usual patterns!

Falkland was cold and windy, Finland  was by 15 C to warm and Iceland was more winter than autumn!

Back to the Shetlands during summer. When you go to Shetland you have to make decisions on which islands you want to stay or to visit. The choice is not as easy as you might think, as every island has a very distinct character and highlights. Visiting all in one summer is nearly impossible, expecially if you want to see the more remote places like Foula, Fair Isle, Papa Stour and so on.

I have been visiting the islands regularly since the beginning of the 80ties, for science, sightseeing, hiking and later for wildlife and landscape photography. I had friends there and witnessed the changes, the north sea oil and fish/mussel farming brought to the communities on the islands. I guess most will agree, that it is now a better place to live than in the 60ties,70ties or 80ties of the last century!

For a while Shetland was a bit like a second home until my friends moved away!

The whole trip from Munich to Amsterdam to Newcastle to Aberdeen, all around Shetland, all around Orkney and back to Newcastle via the scottish west coast and back home was about 6500km. I used 15 car ferries, 6 passenger ferries/excursion boats and 1 inter island flight. But a broken crankshaft position sensor (I learnt this noun very well!) was the only trouble we had. And this could be solved with the help of some locals! I know now, how to order spare parts with overnight delivery!

The undisputed darlings of Shetlands wildlife are the puffins, the most elusive is the sea otter. You have common and grey seals, whales in coastal waters, lots of seabirds and waders, Fair Isle is famous for migratory birds and Foula is the world capital of Great Skuas. Plenty of wildlife to choose from as a photographer. Not so wild but loveable are the Shetland Ponies and finally thousands of sheep, most of them are of the breed Shetland Sheep, are grazing in the hills and on the moorlands and if you are a fan of rare breeds you may look for the Foula Sheep an ancient breed, which lives, you probably guess, only on Foula (no other sheep is allowed on Foula to keep the breed pure).

Lots of critters to watch and to photograph!

Lets start with the sea mammals, Yes we have seen whales from Sumburgh Head, far down in the sea. Nice but nothing to take pictures of. Really awesome have been the common or harbour seals. The best place I know is on Foula, where a small population is used to people as they haul out and play in the waters close to the main settlement, which is basically just a few houses. This place works since about 15 years at least, it must be already the whatever generation of seals staying there.

Great photography opportunities (if you make it to Foula and stay for several days)!

A first for me on the Shetlands has been a Sea Otter. It is one of the best places to spot them in the whole of Europe and there are even some local wildlife guides specializing on Otters, but it takes many days to be successful. We had been lucky and right on our first full day we spotted one, not a great picture, but one to remember. Very elusive creatures!

It happened on the boat excursion to the bird cliffs of Noss and the sea was very, very choppy. Anyway, very lucky!

No stay on Shetland without some sessions with Shetland Ponies. They are used as recreational horses and are kept in paddocks. Only once or twice in all the years I encounterd some on the vast but still fenced areas in the hills. Paddocks make photography a bit difficult, if you want to avoid fences in the frame or do not like to edit large parts of the pictures with erasing techniques. But it is fun anyway and you never know where you find a good paddock in the right light with ponies not coming to close or staying to far away!

What is to say about seabirds and Shetland. I guess you will find hardly a better place in the world with so many options and somehow accessable cliffs in such a great scenery and it is hard to find a good start for this paragraph of this blog. Maybe I start with what surprised me most - Great Skuas!

This picture is from the only session we had with Great Skuas. In the past you could not walk 200m in Hermaness without stumbling over a pair of Skuas and Foula was (and probably still is) the skua capital of the world. This time it was hard to spot them! What had happened! Avian Flu has taken a huge toll! Locals talk about loosing about 70% of the population in all colonies! My biggest concern was avian flu when I planned this workshop, but I thought about the dense colonies of puffins and other auks not about the skuas, which seem to be quite robust in the southern hemisphere. It is the third workshop, which was affected by avian flu (South Georgia, twice Antarctica and twice the Falklands, all within the last 12 months).

But in the Shetlands the decline in predators increased the numbers of auks equally dramatically. I have never ever seen as many puffins on Foula and Hermaness as this year!

Puffins had been numerous and much more relaxed. We visited two of the big colonies (Hermaness and Sumburgh Head) several times and one of the smaller colonies on Foula. We skipped two big sites (Noss from land and the big south-western colony on Foula) because access was more difficult and we had other things to do. As you see, there are many places for sea birds on Shetland!

I will never understand these birds and the rhythms in their colonies. Theory is, that it is best during the evening hours, as they come back from fishing. But we had great numbers during noon and little numbers during late afternoon and on the next visit it was different again. Most of the birds usually vanish in their burrows quite quickly, but with little threat from Skuas they stayed much longer in front of the burrow than in former years or where socializing somewhere at the clifftops.

Mysterious was as well, that they did not bring fish to the burrows, not a single one during all our visits. The chicks are already big enough for fish and should have been fed constantly. I did some research, but nothing was published! It could not have been all singles..... or late breeders! I will check the statistics as soon as they are published.

Puffins are fun to watch, they are pretty, socialize and interact between each other even later in the year. I never get bored in a puffin colony!

Other auks are more difficult to get, as they breed in the lower parts of the cliff, the boat excursion around Noss was great, but photography was very difficult as we had about one meter swell. This would have been the best option for razorbills and guillemots, or climbing down one of the easier cliffs on Foula. We could not repeat the boat excursion due to lack of time and decided not to climb down on Foula, which is a very tricky thing, especially if tis wet wnd windy. But we have got some shots.

More or less unlimited are photo ops with Northern Fulmars. They breed nearly everywhere, if nothing works, you always find Fulmars! You just have to be close to the coast, have some cliffs and you will find fulmars swirling around and nesting somewhere in the cliffs!

They gather and are nesting even in ruins of abandoned houses. They are noisy and very caring, a bit like Albatrosses, to whom they are distantly related as tubenoses. They do not get so much love from photographers, which is a pity, it really can be rewarding to spend some time with them! Really attractive for photographers are the northern gannets, which can be found on some islands, the easiest is probably Noss and a more remote colony is at Hermaness, Unst.

Their chicks are as big as they should be during this time of the year! On Shetland most gannet photography is at cliff tops or by the Noss boat, they do not have flat nesting areas on the islands. Very rewarding especially as birds in flight, but really long lenses will make everything easier!

Finally two more species of our feathered friends we covered this year. We did not go for waders or divers nor for songbirds. Shetland is not only about birds and we had "only" two weeks!

The best place for Arctic Skuas is Fair Isle. Even if we would have had the time, staying there is unfortunately nearly impossible right now. The terrific bird observatory with its accomodation burned down and the new buiding is not yet finished. On Foula we found a pair which was quite tolerant! Close by is a great location for Shags (and puffins), which is a must, when I am staying there!

Shetland is also about landscape, historic sites and lovely Lerwick, the capital.

The cliffs are awesome and you would need months to visit all the cliffs of the Shetlands. The cliffs of Hermaness, Foula, Noss, Eshaness or North Roe are just a few examples. If you like cliff walks and coastal landscapes, visit Shetland! The walks can be 15 min or several hours or sometimes a very, very long day like the famous walk on Foula up to the Kame. I did this walk when I was much younger and it really is a challenge. But be prepared for all kinds of weather from fair to foul and back within hours!

We visited some of the famous cliffs often more than once, to have a different atmosphere or light. Most of the time we had at least one day with fair weather, only Foula with its dramatic cliffline was the exception, no sun on Foula! We even had to take the ferry back, as the airline asked us to cancel the flight in favour of the little ferry, they did not want us to risk to get stuck on Foula for one or more days. The car was at the airport and the ferry was in Walls. Thats quite a distance, but Shetlanders are helpfull and we got a lift from the ferry operator, gossip included! Have fun looking at some of the cliff landscapes!

Your are never far away from the coastline, but do not miss the rolling hills of the inner parts of the islands, often dotted with ponds. Close to the sea Shetland is farmed, but the hills are open pasture for the Shetland Sheep and sometimes for Ponies. More remote parts like the area around Ronas Hill are a quite untouched wilderess, for day hikes or overnight stays.

People from all ages left their traces on the Shetland Islands. From the early settlers from the Neolithic to Picts, Vikings, lairds from the middle ages to the herring boom towns of the 19th and 20th century. Some sites are of world reputation (Jarlshof, Broch of Mousa) some are hardly known to the locals and completely overgrown. Photography is rewarding, sometimes it is lost place photography in the middle of nowhere, sometimes cruise ships passengers are crowding the more famous sites with easy access. It is you choice, but take your time!

Lerwick is a lovely little town, the only place on the Shetlands, which deserves the title "town". It is the administrative center and the main place for shopping. The population is just below 7000, but it feels different, much bigger, with the museums, cinemas, schools the town hall, supermarkets and the harbour. The historic town center however is small and you need just 10 min to cross it.

When rainy or foggy Lerwick is a grey and sometimes gloomy place, when it is sunny and busy with tourists, sailors and locals it has a much more friendly atmopshere! Eating out in the surprisingly excellent restaurants is common, but street life comes to an end very early in the evening and Lerwick feels small and sometimes grey again.

It is a good base for south Shetland and it always deserves one or more visits!

The most famous tradition and by now a major touristic event is the Up Helly Aa in winter, celebrating the viking heritage. I never managed to be in the Shetlands when it takes place. But one tradition is very much alive, without touristic reasons - peat cutting. All over the moorlands you will find peat banks, which are still exploited. Fuel is expensive even if lots of it is brought ashore in Sheltand at Sullom Voe.

Without knowing it, I bumped into a summer parade with some elements of th Up Helly AA and a bit of german carneval. Funny. I did not have the right equipment for more or better pictures, but is was fun anyway.

it is now time for the closing pictures of this first part of my blog. Bits and pieces we discovered during our stay on the Shetlands.

Wir sind jetzt wieder regelmäßig auf den Fototagen und Reisemessen unterwegs. Wenn Ihr wollt besucht uns! Die nächsten Messen sind:

Fernwehfestival Erlangen vom 15.11 bis 17.11.2024

und zum erste Mal für unsere schweizer und südwestdeutschen Kunden die

Mundologia in Freiburg vom 31.01.bis 02.02.2025

In Wien bin auch ich mit dabei, Erlangen macht Jürgen Stock alleine, am besten uns einfach vorher anrufen.

Noch ein Hinweis für meine nächsten Workshops:

• Wir werden einen einwöchigen Workshop auf Shetland anbieten, mit einer optionalen Verlängerung auf Foula. Die Unterlagen werden gerade erarbeitet.
• Grönland 2025 wird jetzt geschlosssen, alle Interessenten auf der Liste werden benachrichtigt, wer noch Interesse hat, bitte sofort melden. Das Interesse für Falkland 2026 war in Wien und Lünen sehr hoch, wir arbeiten momentan die Kontakte ab. Wenn da Interesse besteht bitte ebenfalls Kontakt aufnehmen, danach könnte es zu spät sein.

Thats it for the moment! Stay tuned and healthy!

written in Szentendre and in the train to/from the travel fair in Vienna, October/November 2024