It’s happened at last … I’ve managed to get killer whale on the garden list! In the past 20 years, to my know­ledge, only two pods have been in, both when I was somewhere else.

The second Shetland Nature Festival has come and gone, though unfortunately the weather caused it to finish with a whimper rather than a bang, when the all-day North Isles Nature Cruise, organised by Brydon Thomason of Shetland Nature, had to be called off due to a poor forecast.

A few unusual birds continued to appear across the North Isles last week.

Last week began quietly for North Isles wildlife, but gathered a little pace as the week progressed.

A male subalpine warbler found at Skaw, Unst, by Rob Brookes on the first day of June subsequently turned out to be an even more interesting individual than at first thought.

I just can’t resist the big spring tides we had around the turn of the month.

Star bird in the North Isles last week was an adult Franklin’s gull that put in a brief appearance at Norwick last Sunday morning before relocating to Westing and Snarravoe the following day. Could it be the same bird that was at Graven in mid-May?

A female golden oriole showed well at Baltasound on the…

Last week was a good one for cetaceans in the North Isles. On the 10th, at least eight, maybe as many as 10 killer whales were seen off Funzie, Fetlar. Then on the Monday, about six killer whales were off Haroldswick, though no adult male was seen with them.

In addition, there were about 25…

With winds predominantly in a west to south-westerly direction, and gales during the latter part, last week was a fairly quiet one for migrant birds around the North Isles.

A couple of blackcaps, one male and one female, were at Norwick in the first half of the week, where a chiffchaff was heard singing occa­sionally,…

The first day of May and Skerries was visited by a red-rumped swallow. Not only do these birds have a different plumage to our more familiar barn swallow, but a different personality or jizz as well.

Red-rumped swallows are norm­ally found across southern Europe where they are fairly common. The rump is actually more of…