|
Coastal Mammals
 |
|
Common seal pup |
A combination of cliffs, rocky headlands and sheltered voes creates a
varied coastal habitat for both grey and common seals. In summer large
shoals of fish attract porpoises, dolphins and whales inshore. Noss Sound is
the best area to look for them.
The voes on the east side are the best for otter watching.
Wild Flowers
 |
| Bird's foot trefoil |
During summer there is a succession of wild flowers.
 |
Roseroot - look for
this
on salt enriched cliffs. |
Roadside verges and pastures blaze with a colourful tapestry of
buttercups, bird's foot trefoil, red campion, clovers and orchids.
Ditches and wet areas glow with golden marsh marigold and the brilliant
yellows of mimulus and yellow flag.
On the moorland look for the tiny white flowers of heath bedstraw, the
sapphire gems of heath milkwort, the yellow stars of tormentil and the
delicate pinks of the heath-spotted orchid.
Birdlife
 |
| Common guillemott |
Bressay provides a mosaic of habitats which support a variety of wild
flowers and breeding birds. The summer moorland is the haunt of species such
as great and Arctic skua, curlew, golden plover, common gull, skylark and
meadow pipit.
 |
Oystercatcher -
colourful
summer visitor |
Elegant red throated divers breed on many of the hill lochs whilst fields
and pastures echo to the calls of waders like oystercatcher, lapwing,
redshank and snipe.
Tiny Shetland wrens, rock pipits and ringed plover breed along the
coastline with Arctic terns, eiders and black guillemots patrolling
offshore. |
