Up at The Wart

As part of the Orkney Nature Festival I went for a guided bird walk this morning. No dogs allowed so Ollie stayed home and helped with boat work! It was a bit breezy and a bit chilly, but bright sunshine and a super day for a walk.

We went up to the highest spot for miles around and the view was amazing. Looking down south towards Scotland we could clearly see Ben Hope and Ben Loyal. You could see Copinsay off to the east and the hills of Hoy to the west. Saw and heard lots of birds - great to have them all identified for us! On this gorse we saw linnets and heard a wren, but the highlight was seeing a honey buzzard. We watched it for a while, a magnificent bird, but too far off to get any photos of.

The most interesting fact we were given was that Great Skuas or Bonxies, thought of as thugs and pirates, are in fact rarer than polar bears! As they are a relatively common sight up here, I had no idea. Apparently they came here following the herring fishers in the mid 1800s, but now survive on smaller birds, chicks, rabbits, poorly or weak lambs, carrion and stealing food from other birds. Yes, they have a lot of bad habits, but there aren't that many of them and when they're gone, they're gone.

This afternoon we had a leisurely sit in the back garden, me knitting and Himself splicing eyes and C links onto mooring ropes. Ollie found it a bit strange - all this relative inactivity! Took him for a good walk after tea to make up for it!