I had the luck to see and film this colony of Grey Seals near Scousburgh Sands (Sppigie Beach), Shetland.
There are a lot of seals around Shetland, but this place seems to be especially easy to access and as a bonus even if the seals are not there the area is very picturesque and nice. This as far as I understand were Grey Seals (Halichoerus grypus), which are a bit bigger then the Common Seals and have more "bull terrier" - like profile. Sadly they were too timid to let me get closer to them, which may be legacy from the times when they were hunted.
Opposite to Scousburgh Sands (Sppigie Beach) beach
These Grey Seals were lying on the Sppigie Beach
Another group of seals on the other end of the beach, Scousburgh Sands
Grey Seals (Halichoerus grypus) on Scousburgh Sands (Sppigie Beach), Shetland
Spiggie Beach was a place recommended to me for seals seeing and there really were a few of them.
Shetland is a place were one can see seals nearly everywhere, but somehow my few first days i couldn't spot any. It may have been the weather or something else but I didn't have any luck.
The Shetland starling (Sturnus vulgaris zetlandicus) is a subspecies of the Common Starling, which lives on the Shetland islands. The difference is that it is slightly darker and bigger then the continental subspecies.
It doesn't look darker on the photo but all of them were like that, so I assume that this is how one of them should look.
I spotted couple of the semi-legendary Shetland ponies. These animals are somewhat strange by the horse's standards, but nonetheless very cute and interesting. I'd get myself one if opportunity arises.
As is alreday well known I like tortoises, so while I've been in North-West Bulgaria I decided to look for some of them in the area, because in this place live only Hermann's tortoises and in particular the Eastern subspecies T. h. boettgeri. This subspecies is somewhat endemic for the teritory of Bulgaria and the areas around the country.
The animal is relatively easy to be found if one follow few simple rules. First look for places with mix pf trees, bushes and open areas covered with grass. Second, be very quiet, the tortoise is much easier to be heard then seen, and third best time is in the morning before the hottest hours in the summer, because these animals will look for cover in the afternoon and is going to be nearly impossible to be seen or found.
So, after short search I found two of them. Note when I comment the unusual patern on the shell of the second, happen that after imspection I discovered that most of the it was damaged and without the usual annual growt circles, so I assume it was victim of fire or other injury.
I found these pictures from the old Valencia Zoo (the link will open article in Spanish), which closed in 2007. It was small zoo with nothing too exotic as far as I could see and at the end seems it was deemed not worthy to be maintained anymore. The quality of the photos is pretty low, but in internet there are not many from that place, so I'll post them anyway for historical reasons in case anybody wants to have an overall idea what was it.
Grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum), mandarin duck (Aix galericulata), Carolina duck (Aix sponsa) and in the middle, the small ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) (or less likely hybrid between ruddy and white-headed duck (Oxyura leucocephala))
Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
Ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
White-cheeked pintail (Anas bahamensis)
Ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea)
Ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis)
Canada goose (Branta canadensis) or Cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii)
Difficult to say from this picture, but likely one of these three species: Brown-cheeked hornbill (Bycanistes cylindricus), White-thighed hornbill (Bycanistes albotibialis) or Black-and-white-casqued (or grey-cheeked) hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus)
