Shetland Nature

Early Orca for third year running

Brydon Thomason — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:13:20 +0000

For the third year running Killer whales have put in an early spring appearance. What is even more interesting is that the pod of 3/4 seen off Lerwick on the 5th March is very likely to be the same pod of four which have been seen and photographed heading North, almost to the day, late February and early March. The pod of four have been documented and numbered by the Scottish Killer Whale Identification Research Team (North Atlantic Killer Whale Project). Andy Thorpe of the Research team, who also leads our sea mammal search, said yesterday – “The pod consists of animals numbered 27, 34, 72 & 73 and were also photographed off Faroe last April, which would perhaps tie in with their sightings moving North such as this years. 34 is the sub-adult male, his dorsal fin had just started to sprout last year, so he is probably about 14-15 years old, he might look quite different this year as he is likely to have grown a bit and his fin to have got taller. The last time they were seen was on 28 June last year off the Shetland mainland”.

Update: Remarkably they reappeared on Sunday when one of our tour leaders, Roger Riddington, saw them off Sumburgh Head.

Simon King’s Shetland Diaries

Brydon Thomason — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:20:37 +0000

If you were not fortunate enough to have seen Simon King’s fantastic three part series which finished this week, we would very much recommend viewing it on BBC iPlayer. It was with out doubt the best TV documentary to feature Shetland in recent years, maybe ever! It was a huge privilege to have been involved right from the start and even more so to have made an appearance on screen.

Watch Simon King’s Shetland Diaries on BBC iPlayer (available until February 25th): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qnw3b

Boat trip with Simon King

Brydon Thomason — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:05:46 +0000

Brydon with Simon

Over the past two summers we have been working closely with Simon King and his team helping towards the forthcoming documentary on Simon’s love affair for the Shetland Isles.

As well as keeping Simon and his team up to date with regular sightings and updates from around the Isles, our local knowledge has played a continual role in much of the research and also filming.

Searching for Killer whales

Following a very successful attempt along with the North Atlantic Killer Whale ID team at locating the herring feeding Orca off- shore, we set out with Simon and co eager to film a feeding frenzy.

Although a prolonged search (again working in close association with Andy Foote and Volker Deeke of the Killer Whale ID team) did not result in locating the Orca, the day out was far from a fruitless.

White Sided Dolphins

Some four or five miles North of Muckle Flugga (the Northernmost tip of Unst) Brydon and Vaila managed to spot a distant feeding frenzy of thousands of Gannets. Knowing all too well that whatever food source would attract such a mêlée of feeding seabirds would also very likely attract cetaceans, as indeed it had, some way up to, (or perhaps over) 1,000 White-sided dolphins – potentially the largest super pod ever recorded off Shetland.

The atmosphere was electric, with dolphins breaking the surface quite literally as far as the eye could see and the sky filled with gregarious gannets piercing into the ocean like arrows all around us. A just reward for our efforts indeed.

Leading the field for the 'Birding media'

Brydon Thomason — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:00:11 +0000

(From left) Brydon Thomason, Roger Ridington, Fiona Barclay (Birdguides), Mike Weedon (Birdwatching Magaziene) Martin Garner and Dominic Mitchell (Birdwatch Magaziene) minutes after identifying Britains third ever Taiga Flycatcher - the smiles say it all!

The birds were far from the only focus, we took time out to show the team our other speciality with some gripping otter watching...

In a bid to introduce some of the leading names from the nations Birding media to Shetlands legendary autumn migration, we put together a thrilling long weekend birding trip, with the vision being to showcase our innovative 2010 Autumn Birding holidays.

Lead by Brydon Thomason, Roger Ridington and Martin Garner, the top team of publicists (consisting of Fiona Barclay of Birdguides, Dominic Mitchell of Birdwatch and Mike Weedon of Birdwatching magazine) new that they could not have wished for better hosts as they each made their Island autumn debut.

Taiga Flycatcher

The weekend excelled beyond all our expectations and simply could not have been scripted better. With the incredible discovery of a Taiga flycatcher, (a third for Britain!!) by the team, the whole ethos of what our birding trips are about and much of our key aims and objectives were wonderfully illustrated; team work, sharing knowledge, inspiring others and the thrill of finding, identifying and enjoying your own ‘rares’ in a remote and crowdless environment.

No Frontiers

Brydon Thomason — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:01:35 +0000

Brydon (left) with the No Frontiers filmcrew

Irish Televisions RTE1’s No Frontiers film crew during a day out with Brydon in search of otters in August. No Frontiers is one Ireland’s most popular top ten television shows. They are essentially a travel and holiday show, the nearest UK equivalent would be the old BBC show ‘Holiday’. No Frontiers is broadcast on Ireland’s number one television station, the state broadcaster RTE 1, in a prime time slot on Sunday evenings at 7.30pm. No Frontiers runs from January to April and this will be their twelfth year on air.