Odd goings-on in the last couple of days. It’s meant to be spring (or something approaching it) but it seems to have turned into late autumn. It’s freezing cold, it keeps snowing and the wind is most definitely a horrid north-westerly. Strangest of all, however, has been the big arrival of geese in south mainland, with began with 112 Pink-feet in the field by the house on April 20th. Since then I have seen loads of the bastards – 280 at Scatness, 256 at Fleck and 250 outside the house again – along with a few Barnacles, none of which decided to enter the Virkie/Toab patch.

All this excitement wouldn’t be right without yet another house tick fiasco – this duly occurred yesterday morning when a Canada Goose (rare in Shetland) plonked itself on the pool in the morning. Unfortunately, yet highly predictably, I was elsewhere and unable to see it. So not only was it the third house tick dip in just over a week, the stupid escaped piece of shit then visited both the Sumburgh and Scatness areas, enabling those participants to see it. Pish tosh and tits.