puffinbillyunst

One disadvantage of an island is access to services. Unst used to have a dentist in the RAF (now there's another story) and then there was a dentist in Yell, the next island, but she's left, so now it's a two ferry journey to Mainland and to Lerwick for emergency treatment.

Could be worse. When I was on North Ronaldsay we got a visit from the Royal Army Dental Corps giving free dental treatment to anyone while trying to prove that they could work in 'difficult field conditions' (but that's another story - if anyone asks I'll tell it as the arrival was quite amusing).

Three visits to the dentist to try and rebuild my decrepit teeth have given me an opportunity to look for a vagrant in Lerwick. No, not a tramp, a rare bird which shouldn't really be here. A steady stream of birders have been heading north on the Northlink ferries to see a Brunnich's Guillemot from the Arctic which seems to think it's the Leirna, the Bressay ferry, as it spends the last two weeks commuting from Lerwick to Bressay by swimming across Lerwick harbour.

There was only one birder up on the boat today and we waited on the Lerwick side from dawn but with no luck. While I went to the dentist, he went over on the ferry and saw the bird well on Bressay before it drifted north and out of sight. Still I saw one at Sumburgh Head in 1989. Consolation prize was a late Pomarine Skua heading north through the harbour. Consolation picture is this Tystie (Shetland name for a Black Guillemot, but that's yet another story), having a look before diving.