Spring at the lighthouse is a time of arrivals of all kinds. The migrating birds are returning with the first to appear are the beautiful black and white oystercatchers. Not far behind come the lapwings, the artic terns and finally the puffins. You have to watch carefully when you are walking on the beach or in the hills as right after the birds arrive they lay their nests which means soon the baby birds are arriving. The picture with this letter is of a baby oystercatcher that is no more than a few minutes old.

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The most important arrival TO ME is my return to the lighthouse after my winter stay in the US. It is always a delight as when I get off the plane I see the daffodils have arrived and are nodding their bright yellow heads every place that the sheep cannot reach.

Soon the lambs will be arriving by the thousands but often in early spring there are a few early ones jumping joyfully over the hills. Lambing is a lot of hard work for the crofters and the farmers but it really is a joyful time in Shetland.

Along with all of this, arrives lots of noise. Early spring is full of all kinds of sounds. The birds are squawking, the burns are full of water from the winter rains and the sheep are calling their lambs. If you add this to the usual sound of wind and ocean it is really a truly beautiful sympathy of nature that arrives in the early spring.

Sharma

I love to hear from you so contact me by Email at sharma@sharmakrauskopf.com

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

I have three books which are directly related to this column. The Last Lighthouse tells how we bought our lighthouse, the day by day journal of a year at Eshaness entitled A Year in the Lighthouse and in Scottish Lighthouses our lighthouse is featured in the 31 lighthouses presented. You can find out more about these books and others I have written at my official author web site.