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Hermaness, Unst, Shetland

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"Hermaness is the most northerly point of mainland Unst – and the UK for that matter – with breathtaking views across to Muckle Flugga, a small sea-worn skerry with the UK’s most northerly lighthouse. The walk takes in much of the bird life on offer in Unst, including great skuas, a gannet colony and puffins."

shetlandwithlaurie.com

A walk to Hermaness, Unst — Shetland With Laurie

A sheep at Hermaness, Unst Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to stand on the edge of the world? When I was little, I had big dreams. Dreams of sailing away to far-flung places in the world, but as I grew older, my career advisor told me that that wasn’t possible. &ldqu
shetlandwithlaurie.com shetlandwithlaurie.com

Muckle Flugga lighthouse. The most northerly point in the UK
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zinniabooklover said:
A red-necked phalarope: between 70% and 90% of the UK breeding population is found in Shetland.

This photo shows the full breeding plumage.

1800
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A rare sight in Sweden, too! Phalaropus lobatus, smalnäbbad simsnäppa. I am fond of the German name for it: Odinshühnchen. In Russia, I believe it’s called Круглоносый плавунчик (Kruglonosyy plavunchik, ‘round-nosed phalarope’[?]).
 
hope said:
Yes, that's right.
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Oh, that was wonderful. I was trying to find a vid and gave up in despair. The ones I found were all too long, quite badly edited, some had horrible music (although you can mute that) and most of them showed the bird with its non-breeding plumage which was confusing for me.

This was perfect. :)
 
hope said:
Have you seen the northern lights?
I live where it happens sometimes, but I've never seen it ((((
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Sadly, no. I live too far south in the UK and always in very urban areas, lots of light pollution. I'm lucky to see Mars a few times a year. I don't know how often they get the Northern Lights in Shetland. Not as often as northern Europe, I don't think. But Shetland is very far north, for the UK. I believe it's closer to Norway than it is to Edinburgh (Scottish capital). On a similar latitude to parts of Russia, afaik.

I've seen the aurora on film. It must be almost unbelievable to see them in RL.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Sadly, no. I live too far south in the UK and always in very urban areas, lots of light pollution. I'm lucky to see Mars a few times a year. I don't know how often they get the Northern Lights in Shetland. Not as often as northern Europe, I don't think. But Shetland is very far north, for the UK. I believe it's closer to Norway than it is to Edinburgh (Scottish capital). On a similar latitude to parts of Russia, afaik.

I've seen the aurora on film. It must be almost unbelievable to see them in RL.
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Thanks for the reply. I don't know why I'm so interested 😀 I live in the city too and so the chances of me seeing this are slim))))))
 
Agonum said:
I’d like to visit someday.
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Yeah, Hermaness looks really cool.

I wouldn't mind going here, Muckle Flagga lighthouse. Probably not really bc I bet it's heaving with tourists in the summer and would be too bleak, I imagine, in the winter. But I like the idea, nevertheless.

Muckle_Fulga_Sunny.jpg
 
zinniabooklover said:
Sadly, no. I live too far south in the UK and always in very urban areas, lots of light pollution. I'm lucky to see Mars a few times a year. I don't know how often they get the Northern Lights in Shetland. Not as often as northern Europe, I don't think. But Shetland is very far north, for the UK. I believe it's closer to Norway than it is to Edinburgh (Scottish capital). On a similar latitude to parts of Russia, afaik.

I've seen the aurora on film. It must be almost unbelievable to see them in RL.
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Conjection: The Shetland Isles should have them fairly regularly, since it’s a few miles more northerly than my current Swedish position. And since the northern lights are a rather common sight in Sweden—even as far south as here, in the vicinity of lake Vänern—they ought to be there, too.
 
hope said:
What's this?
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‘Aves’ is the scientific (Latin) name for birds (and ‘Avi’ is the dative/ablative case of the same word). ‘Avid’ is a (in my view) fitting description of this particular individual’s hunt for food. The combination of the two words is to be blamed on my penchant for alliteration.
 
Agonum said:
Conjection: The Shetland Isles should have them fairly regularly, since it’s a few miles more northerly than my current Swedish position. And since the northern lights are a rather common sight in Sweden—even as far south as here, in the vicinity of lake Vänern—they ought to be there, too.
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I think it's more a question of the weather. I believe the aurora occurs several times per month in Shetland over the winter. The question is, how often they can be seen bc of cloud cover. We get so much cloud cover in the UK. The winters in Shetland are quite mild, relatively speaking, bc of the Gulf Stream but there's lots of rain and storms.
 
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Chloris chloris (European greenfinch/Grünfink/
Обыкновенная зеленушка [Obyknovennaya zelenushka, ‘common greenfinch’]/grönfink), often referred to as ‘sveriges kanariefågel’ (the Swedish canary bird) because of its characteristic song and flight call.
 
zinniabooklover said:
I think it's more a question of the weather. I believe the aurora occurs several times per month in Shetland over the winter. The question is, how often they can be seen bc of cloud cover. We get so much cloud cover in the UK. The winters in Shetland are quite mild, relatively speaking, bc of the Gulf Stream but there's lots of rain and storms.
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Of course, yes. But even so, it should be a fairly regular sight.
 
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