A trip to Westray

A trip to Westray last week coincided with a spell of lovely weather and allowed some time to visit the seabird colony at Noup Head, the Aikerness peninsula and the Castle of Burrian.

Noup Head was looking splendid in the Spring sunshine and it was pleasing to watch the behaviour of the birds in the colony. 

Guillemots

Guillemot bon mot

Razorbills

Noup Head is home to a gannetry, and a steady stream of Gannets were bringing in nesting material in the form of seaweed.

Once your nest is built, I guess the next order of business is to ensure that there will be some eggs to lay in it. How ever precarious that might be.

Sometimes there are confrontations between neighbours in the closely-packed colony, but mainly the birds seem to settle into an uneasy peace.

Gannets are large and spectacular birds and such a pleasure to watch up close.

Another resident of the cliffs is the Kittiwake, a delicate-looking member of the gull family. At a nearby lochan, a large group of Kittiwakes were busy gathering nesting material, rising as a flock for the journey back to the cliffs.

At the nesting ledges, the mud and grass were carefully molded into a shallow cup using a paddling action of the feet.

And after all that messy industriousness, the flock would head off to the other end of the lochan for a well-deserved wash.

There were half a dozen Wheatears on the clifftops, such dapper wee birds.

At the north end of the island, the coastal scenery is even more spectacular. I would've spent more time photographing it, if it hadn't been for all the salt spray and a concern for my optics.

On the east side of Westray, at Castle of Burrian, is Orkney's largest Puffin colony. It wasn't a good time of day for our visit, most birds being out to sea or in their burrows. However, occasionally a Puffin would emerge from a burrow, turn its back on us and have a poo, before disappearing underground again.

As everywhere in Orkney, clifftops and ledges were decorated with Fulmars, smaller and distant relatives of the albatross.

Despite the long day, there was still time to visit the polling station on my return to mainland Orkney, before a contemplative browsing of the day's images.