Book Review: Wild Shetland Through the Seasons
We all read books differently, and I’m a cover-to-cover kinda guy, so when I got my hands on Brydon Thomason’s latest book Wild Shetland Through the Seasons, I read it from start to finish. However, this is a book that you can enjoy in so many different ways — whether that’s as a sit-down and savour page-by-page read, an ornament for the coffee table to be leafed through at leisure, or an accompaniment to the seasons, this is a versatile and timeless book that you will keep coming back to, time and time again.
Brydon Thomason is a Fetlar-born Shetland naturalist who has spent decades in Shetland’s landscapes, photographing and observing the incredible wildlife of our islands. Brydon is also the owner of Shetland Nature, which runs wildlife holidays and guided tours throughout Shetland, and this latest book showcases his incredible archive of photographs and insights into the seasons, which, as they change, bring different wildlife experiences with them.
Brydon’s love affair with wildlife started at a very young age. Known endearingly as “Fetlar”, I’ve known Brydon since I was a young lass, and, even back then, he always carried a pair of binoculars with him. In fact, when Brydon was looking for a new gansie for his author’s photo, it was my mam he asked to knit it for him.
The book is unpretentious, packed with incredible information about the species he photographs and nostalgic. It takes the reader to his childhood croft, where he began observing nature and, guided by naturalists, had his first experiences ringing whimbrels and observing storm petrels in Fetlar, all the way around the world on the migratory wings of the species he examines.
All photos in this blog are by Brydon Thomason, unless otherwise specified.
Brydon Thomason with his signature binoculars and a beautiful knitted jumper by Ingrid Sutherland. Photo: Sophie Whitehead
The book itself is a work of art, featuring 80 species illustrated through 179 images across 286 pages and opens with an incredible double-page spread of a raft of eider ducks, commonly seen throughout the winter months around Shetland waters. The captivating photographs are brought to life with Brydon’s words that take the reader on a journey through Shetland’s seasonal wildlife highlights.
“By late September, the vibrance and voice of summer has passed”
From its beginnings in Fetlar, the book takes the reader on a migratory journey around the world as Brydon examines the birds that make Shetland such a special place for birding. From the passage of the Arctic tern who makes a greater migration than any other species between the poles, to the far-off Galapagos Islands where Fetlar’s tiny red-necked phalaropes winter each year. We discover the foraging routes of the fulmar, the population growth of the great skua, and the rapid decline of many of our best-loved seabirds — including the complete loss of the white-tailed eagle, so prevalent in our island’s folklore, from our landscape and outlying sea stacks.
Over 465 species of bird have been recorded in Shetland, the highest total of any county in the UK. Brydon shares his birding highlights from each season, and shows us that birding in Shetland is so much more than the seabirds of summer, and that some of the best experiences can be enjoyed in the ‘dead’ of winter.
But this is not just a book of birds, we meet mammals, flowers, butterflies, moths and insects — and from the largest orca, to the smallest beetle and delicate damselfly, Brydon shows us that nature experiences in Shetland can range from the epic sighting of an orca pod hunting seals close to shore, to scrambling serpentine slopes on hands and knees looking for the beautiful Edmondston’s chickweed, a plant so rare, that it only grows on one scree hillside in Unst.
“What’s in a name - Orca or Killer Whale? There are some who hold the view that ‘Killer Whale’ gives the species an unfair or misleading reputation, as there is a negative connotation associated with the word ‘killer’. The irony of this is that the scientific name Orcinus orca, promoted by some as a less judgemental name, comes from the mythical Roman god of death, Orcus.”
It’s incredible to think that killer whales, seldom spotted when I was young, are now seen all year round in Shetland’s waters, and that there are more recorded sightings here in a year than anywhere else in the UK. Regular pods to Shetland’s shores are the 65s, 64s and the 27s, and spotting these hunt around the shores for seals and herring, is one of the greatest wildlife experiences to be had.
Brydon’s greatest love has always been the otters, of which, Shetland has the greatest density of Eurasian otter found anywhere else. Brydon has spent years tracking, photographing and observing these most elusive of mammals which feed on our sheltered shorelines, raising their cubs. Known as draatsi in Shetland, Wild Shetland follows on from Brydon Thomason and Richard Shucksmith’s Otters in Shetland: The Tale of the Draatsi, which was published in 2015.
“For any young carnivore there is much to learn to live on land, but hunt in the sea, it’s as if they [otters] must learn the ways of both worlds.”
Brydon’s words, beautiful, poignant and often carrying the warnings of the threats facing our wildlife due to external pressures such as climate change and plastic pollution which chokes the nest sites of gannets and continues to trap and entangle our wildlife, are brought to life with his beautiful photography, captured throughout Shetland’s seasons. One of the most haunting images shows Fetlar’s snowy owl, fixed eyes staring right into the lens, a reminder to us all of the fragility of the natural world. From the 1960s until the mid-1990s, snowy owls lived and bred on the small island of Fetlar, Brydon’s home island. Over nine years, they successfully fledged 23 chicks, but by 1976, the resident male had disappeared and no more chicks were born.
“Nostalgic moments like this are priceless. Cultivated by memories, people, places and wildlife encounters, they are the most precious experiences.”
It’s hard to describe how I feel as I leaf through Brydon’s book; other than to say I feel incredibly proud. Proud of Shetland, in all its natural beauty, and proud of Brydon for producing such a wonderful tribute to our home islands. His book is filled with as much love of home, as it is of the species of his photography, and his passion sings out beyond the pages — weel don, Brydon!
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