A Plaice for Skate at the Ness
By Rhiannon Jehu A friend and I went to the Discover Shetland’s Sharks and Skates event at the Ness Boating Club a few weeks ago. We both enjoy nature, but I don’t know that much about individual marine species lifestyles, so this felt like a great opportunity to learn more. Before I went I decided…
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Doing Less for Nature
By Rhiannon Jehu I think that this year I’m going to commit myself to doing less for nature. No Mow May is a campaign started by Plantlife and is linked to their wild verges campaign that I mentioned in a blog last year and also to their Citizen Science project called #everyflowercounts Every Flower Counts…
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A Celebration of Birds and Bogs
By Rhiannon Jehu I find birds amazing, they can seem so small, so light weight, so vulnerable looking, and yet they survive in what to us feels like harsh extremes. The RSPB suggest that birds are probably the most researched and recorded wildlife on the planet. At the opposite end of the spectrum, wetlands have…
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Connecting with life’s cycles
By Rhiannon Jehu This time of year is for sitting back, dreaming and planning, so I’m going to write a few thoughts here. In one of my blogs last spring, I discussed how connecting with nature can help a person feel physically and mentally fitter, while Covid has highlighted the importance of connecting with people…
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Sea mammals and Shorewatch- a beginners perspective
By Rhiannon Jehu Despite living in Shetland all my life, I know very little about the sea mammals that live so close to us. I decided to fix that and have written a few notes on what I have learned so far. For many generations people have hunted whales. Commercial whaling started in the Middle…
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Verging on Beautiful
By Rhiannon Jehu I walk on single track and other unpaved roads as a part of my daily routine. Stepping into the verge and waving ‘Hi’ to passing traffic is normal for me and gives me the opportunity to really enjoy the beauty and colour of our wild flowers; this year’s verges have been blooming…
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Otter Eye View
By Rhiannon Jehu The European otter, or Draatsi as it is known in the Shetland dialect, is one of Shetlands most popular mammals. Our combination of soft peat for holts, freshwater pools for bathing and offshore kelp beds for feeding make Shetland a des res for otters. In many areas of Europe they feed in…
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Everyday Nature: Starling Surprises
By Rhiannon Jehu Last month I wrote about how spending time with nature is good for our wellbeing. The Mental Health Foundation describes ‘everyday nature’ as the moments of pleasure that we can snatch regularly throughout the day. Taking a moment to look out the window; stopping to breath in the smell of the sea;…
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My Experiences Of #ConnectWithNature for Mental Health Awareness Week.
By Rhiannon Jehu The Mental Health Foundation argues that connectedness with nature increases pro-environmental behaviour and is important for our mental and physical health. I decided to focus on the theme ‘The Power of Nature’ for Mental Health Awareness Week this year. I kept a diary and am going to write a brief summary of…
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Meet Sally Huband- Eggcase Hunter…
Thanks to everyone in Shetland who reports their findings to the Shark Trust’s Great Eggcase Hunt, we now have a good idea of the species that occur locally. But the more records that are submitted the better this understanding will become. It can be a bit confusing at first, working out which eggcase is which…
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Shetland Community Wildlife Group 