Gannet from a colony off the Island of Noss

Today was was day which exceeds any superlatives. The weather was in our favour with light winds and cloudless skies for the boat excursion around Bressay Island and Noss.

The Original Noss Boat: Bressay & Noss 5-Star Wildlife Cruise was a trip friend of mine said we should not miss. And he was right. Across a sparking sea we powered in a catamaran from Lerwick with an informative guide pointing out what to look for.

At points along the journey the engines cut and we drifted slowly along the base of towering cliffs, in and out of huge caves and past sea stacks and arches. Where the rock faces and every possible ledge was laced with thousands of nesting birds, many guillemots floated by in rafts and the sky was full of wheeling screeching seabirds; kittywakes, shags, cormorants, arctic skuas, fulmars and of course gannets.

The gannets were the star of the show and we were able to film them in slow motion as they dived into the water after fish thrown from the boat. The whole experience will remain with us all for as long as we live.

What to blip. A gannet, of course, for the main blip and two extras of different scales; a collection of younger gannets ready for a night on the tiles and a wider view of the epic nature of the cliffs of Noss.

The rest of the day was not shabby either. I went for a run at 60deg north, beating the 59deg on Orkney last year. The girls went crafting in Lerwick, viewing all the exquisite craft and art shops in the town while I went on a walk around the Ness of Sound. On any other day the coastal scenery on Ness and the Sands of Sound would have made today’s blip.

Today belonged to the sea birds, especially the gannets around the cliffs of Bressay and in particular Noss