Flavour of Fetlar
A totally unique four day holiday based on Fetlar, ‘The Garden of Shetland’, an island bursting with a mouth-watering wealth of wildlife-watching opportunities and featuring some of the UK’s rarest moorland breeding birds.
This truly is an exclusive island insight that no other operator can offer as the holiday has been passionately put together using Brydon’s unsurpassed knowledge of his home island and its wonderfully diverse natural history for which it is known the world over. Furthermore, by exclusive arrangement with the reputable four-star ‘Gord guest house’ (the sole guest house on the island), we are the only locally-based operator to stay overnight on Fetlar, allowing us undisturbed early morning and evening encounters which are so often the best of the day!
Friday
On arrival, you are picked up from the ferry terminal or airport. We then begin our four-day adventure in the south mainland of Shetland, enjoying the southernmost lighthouse at Sumburgh Head RSPB reserve and its thousands of breeding seabirds, the ideal introduction to your wildlife watching weekend. We are then continue North, bound for the ‘Garden of Shetland’, savouring the italic Shetland scenery along the way and after two short ferry crossings we reach Fetlar, and check into our four-star guesthouse.
Saturday and Sunday
Fetlar is still the place in Britain to see the Red-necked Phalarope, one of the nation’s rarest breeding birds. The island boasts over 90% of the entire UK breeding population of these stunning and charismatic little waders which each summer are the star attraction for visiting ornithologists. For the ‘would-be admirer’ the phalaropes have many endearing traits; their elegance, beauty, breeding role-reversal and to top it all they are famously confiding. The island is also home to some of the highest densities of rare moorland breeding species in the country, with nationally important numbers of Whimbrel and the wonderfully evocative Red-throated Diver. Good numbers of Arctic Skua, Golden Plover and Dunlin are amongst the host of species which abound on the isle.
Several Storm Petrel colonies are found around Fetlar’s coastline and for the adventurous visitor late evening excursions are arranged to witness the thrilling spectacle of these fascinating little seabirds returning to their nests under cover of nightfall. The island also hosts the only known Manx Shearwater colony in Shetland, which now numbers little more than a handful of pairs. On a calm evening we may see these graceful seabirds returning from feeding trips far out to sea.
Lastly, but my no means least, we will dedicate time to searching some of Brydon’s favourite Otter sites, from which he has gained a lifetime of experience learning their behaviour, movements and every nook and cranny of the coastlines they inhabit.
Monday
We leave Fetlar and travel across to Unst, to spend our last day on the most northerly island in the British Isles. Here, we will begin with a visit to the Keen of Hamar National Nature Reserve, a world-renowned botanist’s paradise, where amongst the seemingly barren and featureless serpentine scree the endemic Edmonston’s Chickweed is found, along with several dainty nationally scarce ‘sub-Arctic alpine’ plants. We then set out across Hermaness National Nature Reserve to enjoy awe-inspiring views of the most northerly outpost in the British Isles – Muckle Flugga lighthouse. Amongst the star ornithological attractions on the reserve we will expect closer encounters with Puffins and Great Skuas than you could ever imagine, as well as breathtaking views of Shetland’s largest Gannet colony.
Tuesday
Leaving ‘The Garden of Shetland’ and its magical charms, we travel south for our departures enjoying we a leisurely safari style journey across to and down through the Shetland Mainland where we savour our last few hours following some of the more secluded side roads to see what we can find…. Maybe common or grey seals hauled out on the shore, Harbour porpoise offshore, a Mountain hare blending into the moorland or maybe even our last glimpse of an Otter!
Booking
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