Rebecca and Phil sent me the following photo that captured another of my favourite memories from Fair Isle that involved a superb pair of Hooded Crows that constructed one of the most beautiful nests I have ever seen near to the cliff edge in one of the Geos on Fair Isle. Over a period of weeks I watched the assembly of the nest from a few dried kelp stems until it was lined, eggs were laid and the chicks hatched....Unfortunately due to the workload at the Obs Deryk, Simon and Myself didn't get the chance to ring them before the stunning chicks fledged!
This photo is just one of many that can be viewed at
http://shetlandexposure.blogspot.com/
and is a classic example of how Rebecca is in my opinion more of an artist than a photographer and seems to look at birds in a completely different light than a lot of her fellow leading wildlife photographers!
Another cracking egg, cracking birder and cracking artist is Will Miles who sent me this Olive-backed Pipit painting as a memoir of my first Olive-backed Pipit! I had many great conversations with Will about life and birds (especially whilst trying to catch petrels)and learnt a lot from him. What Will doesn't know about Leach's Storm Petrels and European Storm Petrels is probably not worth knowing and is a true birder who gets the same excitement from a migrant Dunnock coming in off the sea than he does finding vagrants from the far east!
THANKS ONCE AGAIN GUYS!
