Fair Isle, Shetland
Out of necessity, plans change during an expedition. Making plans and changing them has become considerably easier in this modern age of satellite communications and more accurate weather forecasting. But even with the best available information, and decisions made with experience based upon that information, a little luck always helps. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you make your own luck. Today we had a bit of both and as National Geographic Explorer was skillfully navigated into our anchorage at North Haven, our Captain had found a spot out of the strong winds that have been so much a feature of this expedition. A few hundred metres to our north the waves and white-caps revealed that the wind had yet to ease, but here we had enough shelter to launch Zodiacs and enjoy exploring the protected bay in search of seabirds and marine mammals. Our search was rewarded with an excellent morning filled with a diversity of wildlife. On the water and steep cliffs we encountered seabirds, including fine views of puffins, while curious seals inspected the passing Zodiacs. All this was set in a beautiful rugged coastline, with cliffs filled with flowering pink thrift and white campions.
In the afternoon, we landed on this remote island location and had a glimpse into life in this island community of about 70 people. In addition to being one of the smallest and most isolated communities in Europe, Fair Isle is an important location for the study of seabirds and is also renowned as a site for the study of bird migration. The scale of the building of the new Fair Isle Bird Observatory reflects the avian importance of the island, and along the road the presence of Helgoland traps which straddled the dry-stone walls were evidence of but one of the tools of bird study on the island. These traps are used to trap migrating birds for banding, and are named after the German island where they were invented. They are also an excellent example of the unexpected ways in which connections are made when travelling, for Heligoland is the original home of the Captain of National Geographic Explorer, whose skill as a seaman brought us here.
