Yell Sound Islands RSPB Reserve Shetland Islands, Scotland
Between the northern coast of Mainland, Shetland and the island of Yell are about a dozen small islands and islets, several of which are owned by the RSPB. They are rich in breeding seabirds but there are no visitor facilities and the islands are difficult to reach. Divers and seaduck winter in Yell Sound in good numbers.
Gruney, in the north has cliffs with breeding Common Guillemot and Atlantic Puffin as well as other seabirds and Leach's Storm-petrel occurs in small numbers. The lower island of Muckle Holm has Northern Fulmar, Shag, Common Eider and Black Guillemot, Oystercatcher and Arctic Tern with a similar range of birds on Uynarey and Fish Holm. The largest island, Samphrey, has the widest range of breeding birds with most of those found on the other islands with the addition of Common Snipe, Arctic Skua and European Storm-petrel. There is a small loch on Samphrey which attracts ducks such as Eurasian Wigeon, Long-tailed Duck and Red-breasted Merganser in winter. Other winter visitors include Barnacle Goose and Snow Bunting. Common Phoca vitulina and Grey Seals Halichoerus grypus are frequently seen in the sound and breed on some of the islands and Otters Lutra lutra are often present. The islands are generally only visited in order to service the lighthouse on Gruney and there are as yet no visitor arrangements.
Birds
Birds you can see here include:
Red-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, Northern Fulmar, Leach's Storm-petrel, European Storm-petrel, Great Cormorant, Shag, Barnacle Goose, Eurasian Wigeon, Common Eider, Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Common Snipe, Arctic Skua, Great Skua, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Kittiwake, Arctic Tern, Common Guillemot, Razorbill, Black Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Rock Dove, Eurasian Skylark, Rock Pipit, Shetland Wren, Hooded Crow, Common Starling, Twite, Snow Bunting
Content and images originally posted by Steve
