Black guillemot

Today's the day ................... to show a leg

We awoke to another beautiful sunny day in Portpatrick and were loath to leave this attractive little port.  

So we spent the morning there, wandering along the bay as far as the small harbour. This would once have been a busy, bustling place - the terminus of the railway line from Dumfries, known as The Paddy Line.  Portpatrick was an important ferry port for passengers, postal mail and freight between Ireland and Scotland. 

Nowadays, it is mainly pleasure craft that use the harbour but there is one other, quite surprising inhabitant that you often see.  Several pairs of black guillemots (known locally as Tysties) can often be seen in Portpatrick Harbour, with a few pairs nesting in crevices within the harbour walls.  They are much smaller than actual guillemots, recognisable by their black plumage, oval white wing patches and - bright red legs (see extra).

There must have been about twenty of them in the harbour today, perfectly at home in their surroundings and happily ignoring all that was going on around them .....................