Arctic Skua

This is a 'dark morph' bird as the species has 'pale, 'intermediate' and the dark phase. Beautifully streamlined, this bird suddenly appeared as I walked the shore of Inganess Bay and I only snatched a shot- but then it wheeled round and made lots of passes quite closely. It won't have been defending a nest- wrong habitat, instead, I think it was looking for oystercatcher or curlew eggs to predate (see extra). I didn't see the ultra-rare bird a local man spotted yesterday, a white-chinned petrel from the South Atlantic, but I liked my dark skua.