Spoots

It was a beautiful, sunny day here so I headed out for a walk in spite of having a lot of tendonitis in my calf. I decided to leave that to the vet and caught the bus to Burray. No, but it did hurt (insert sympathy here:..................) and got off at the village. I then walked along the shore westward to the causeway at Hunda. The farmer from Littlequoy was over on the island with feed for sheep, so I waited until he'd driven back across and headed over. Back on Burray I walked the road to Echnaloch Bay where I saw these people by the beach. They were walking backwards, which is a good clue...they were gathering 'spoots' or razorshell, a shellfish which hides below the sand. As the walker passes over, it contracts to force itself further down but causes a little spout (spoot!) of water which is spotted by the searcher. I believe they are taken home, and fried with butter. More shots here.