Bay windows

As an addendum to the previous post about the Peregrine falcon, that afternoon we wandered up to Houton Head, passing the Starling flock which had been fortunate to avoid the predations of the raptor. They were taking it all in their stride (wingflap?), to be fair.

Out on the Head, we sat on the parapet of one of the old military structures and watched the goings on out in Bring Deeps. Gannets and Kittiwakes were passing southwards close to shore, a few Great Skuas likewise, and the local sub aqua club were diving in the channel. Despite much looking, there was nary a fin to be seen breaking the water's surface, but the sky provided a bit of interest with this layered cloud seen to the south, possibly a less than perfectly neat lenticular?

Tromping back along the clifftop path, we encountered caterpillars every few steps, pretty much all of them Ruby Tiger moth larvae. One Ragwort plant even had six caterpillars on it, with my cropped photo of the topmost three eliciting a chorus of The Kaiser Chiefs' "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby... "

Walking back around Houton Bay, many gulls were gathered on patches of floating seaweed near the shore. Amongst them were a couple of Grey Herons, who were trying to find a few moments peace to hunt fish.

 Some hope!

This weekend brought a trip down to Burwick in South Ronaldsay to see whether the Grey Seal pupping season had begun.

The bay of Bur Wick with its many rocky coves

We managed to find a cove that had five adult female seals on it. Three of these had given birth, but sadly one pup appeared to be still-born. However, the other two pups were healthy and either suckling or exploring the beach.

The local bird info network alerted us to a rare duck that was quite close inshore at Skaill Bay in the West Mainland. As these North American ducks are normally out at sea if they venture this side of the Atlantic, this seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

This is a Surf Scoter, a mostly black duck with a large Roman nose for a bill. Appropriately enough, it was feeding just beyond the surf which was crashing onto the beach.

Last evening, we ventured to our first live gig since the global pandemic reached our shores, in the Sound Archive, a small music venue in Kirkwall. This was for the celtic folk group Gnoss, two members of which hail from Orkney. It was great to be experiencing live music again, although we remained masked throughout, unless quickly sipping a beverage. I guess we await our next lateral flow tests to see whether the experiment was worth it?!