Puffin Hunt on Westray ....Castle o'Burrian

As we set out for the ferry to Westray it was raining and grey and oh so windy....cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey.
Determined to see some puffins I was happy to hear that the ferry hadn't been cancelled.
When I looked out the window of the ferry I was relieved  to see that through the fog there was a little marker to show we were on track and we were going to make it to our destination...(extra)...see if you can see it. 
We put all our rain gear on and headed for the cliffs the wind buffeting from the ocean side...fortunately otherwise we would of got blown off.
Half way across the cliff tops I had a thought at how crazy it all was...I could hardly see anything..I needed windscreen wipers on my glasses the only thing that kept me going was the thought of seeing the loads of puffins that everybody was telling us about.

When we stumbled upon the Castle (which is a stack out in the ocean...not to far away) there was not a puffin is sight. After a while this little guy appeared ..he posed for a while and then turned around and went back in his little burrow. A few puffins flew around.....but that was it.....we stayed on that hill in the freezing wind for ages moving a little closer to the rocks.
It was like he was putting on his little command performance every 30 mins or so...the same timing.....flapping his little wings turning this way and that.......there is something so loveable and curious about these little  birds...a feeling one can only get seeing one in action. I am glad he came out for us....it only takes one ...in retrospect we didn't need to see lots.

I was disappointed with my pics...I would of liked them to of been sharper....(if you want to see better ones head over to Sleepyheads journal when he posts) he had a much longer lens 400mm to my 200mm...plus every time I looked at my lens it had rain drops all over it...(it just couldn't be helped)...which made for a softer and grainy image...(of course the higher ISO because of the dull day didn't help either).

He decided to fly off...and then legs splayed he came in for land...perfect..like an arrow to his landing pad...the seagulls and Fulmers had a lot of difficulty trying to get back to their roosts.

I had had enough......my body was locking up from being in the wet....cold and in the wind for so long...time to get back to some warmth......walking along the path I found some wild primroses to snap (not the Scottish pink one) (extra)....such a lovely lemony yellow.

On the way back to the ferry I got P to stop the car....for some reason the sheep in the field were needing to be blipped. when I got out of the car braving the weather once more....they were so excited to see me they made a complete racket and all came running up to me....bleeting ...'take me back to Australia its bloody frreeeeezing here' I heard them say...(extra) one of the lambs reminded me of Rumi......and one was laughing.....crazy.

We didn't get back to the mainland until late....when we finally got home it was sooooooo lovely to be warm and tingly....drinking cups of hot tea

It has just passed the witching hour....very tired...again...and again it has been a HUGE day. Its a bit sad that our time on Orkney is nearly coming to an end.....there is still so much to do and see still.