Snow Pool

We've had little but driving hailshowers while much of Scotland has had snow, but today Kirkwall was hidden by great swirling clouds of feathery snowflakes. I got the Houton bus and thought that it might not even manage the hill from town, such was the blizzard!. But it did, and I debussed at the road to Waulkmill Bay. No-one about as I wandered over the saltmarsh and took this picture. I crossed the sands as the tide receded and climbed the steps to the road, then along to the house called Crook, and onto the RSPB reserve of Hobbister. Birds on the bay- a single bar-tailed godwit, oystercatchers, curlew, redshanks, wigeon, mallard, heron, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser and a great northern diver. On the moor- not much; a red grouse, a raven, snipe, and fulmars and eiders off the cliffs. I made coffee and then headed back to the road in sunshine. A short diversion to the Loch of Kirbister and then the bus back to town. More shots here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/octobermoth/