Simon King's Shetland

Fancy a visit to Shetland? I do and I am going. Simon King's short video might help to whet your appetite....

Book #16 Shetland Diaries: Otters, Orcas, Puffins and Wonderful People

Shetland Diaries: Otters, Orcas, Puffins and Wonderful People by Simon King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Simon King spent a year on the Shetland Islands filming and keeping a diary, accompanied by his wife Marguerite and young daughter Savannah. His main objective was to film otters, an animal for which he has a long time passion. He also filmed orcas; on one occasion seeing a large pod within metres of the boat in which he was travelling. His description of this event was breathtaking. He filmed puffins close up, gannets plunging into the sea to catch fish and the secretive storm petrel - on the Island of Mousa, one of the only locations in the UK where this sparrow sized seabird can be seen.

His enthusiasm for wildlife is infectious as he experienced Shetland through the changing seasons and discovered the wildlife and the warmth of community in these islands. I had the pleasure of meeting Simon in 2014 at the Rutland Bird Fair. He is a font of all knowledge concerning wildlife, particularly birds. Anyone who can instantly identify a marsh tit from a willow tit has my respect!

I loved this heartwarming and inspirational book, made all the more enjoyable as providing much location information for my own forthcoming trip in May to Shetland.

View all my reviews

British Birds

Those lovely people at British Birds have just sent out the August 2014 edition of the journal (a must for any keen ornithologist) and included the full 80 page Official Programme 2014 to Birdfair which means that I can plan my visit well in advance rather than having to buy a copy on the day.

This will be the 26th annual Birdfair and this will be my fourth visit, staying as usual at the wonderful Crown Inn, Uppingham which has won many awards for the traditional ales it serves including Tiger Best Bitter brewed by Everards and serves excellent pub grub. I don't know what I look forward to most - the visit to the Birdfair or the Crown Inn!

Simon King Wildlife is an associate sponsor of Birdfair and I look forward to meeting him again along with many other personalities from the world of bird-watching and wildlife conservation. Simon King has worked in the field of natural history film making for over 30 years. He is the creator and presenter of many award-winning productions including Springwatch, Big Cat Diary, Planet Earth and Blue Planet. Simon is current president of the Wildlife Trusts.

Simon King

This year Birdfair has added a new Authors' Wildlife Forum Marquee offering the chance to meet the authors of some of this year's top titles. 

I just need to be careful not to splash out too much cash; easily done here particularly in the optics marquee. Nevertheless I shall have to take a look here: www.swarovskioptic.com and here: www.hawkeoptics.com .....