Answering a call of Nature

Recently, a day's work was cancelled at the last minute when the spare part we'd been waiting for finally turned up but was not what had been ordered.

Gah!

Still, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and there was a rarity loitering at a wetland pool in the West Mainland. Better still, checking my life list, the bird wasn't on it. There will be plenty of dreich days this Winter so I reasoned that making the most of the fine weather was probably allowable.

The pool in question was quite close to the shore, so we left the car at a nearby car park and wandered along the coast. There were loads of thrushes about, a trend for a few weeks now, with Blackbirds, Redwings and Fieldfares to the fore. A small flock descended to the ground before our eyes and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that they were Song Thrushes.

Song Thrush

But on to the pool, for the main event! This diminutive wader is a Grey Phalarope, a species which breeds in the Arctic and then spends much of Winter at sea. Occasionally, on passage in the Autumn, a few individuals might be blown off course by bad weather, which is presumably what happened in this case.

Grey Phalarope with a Common Gull

Back at the car park, I realised that the cold morning air had created a bit of a pressing urgency in part of my body, so I scanned around for a secluded place to go for a pee. A nearby dry stone wall was just too public, so I headed down onto the beach to find a place to hide amongst the rocks. I had left my binoculars at the car, so even before I could get to the matter in hand, I was a bit nonplussed to spot something red on a rock in the bay. There had been several Snipe on these rocks earlier, but even with the golden sunlight, this colour couldn't be mistaken for a russet hue, it was blood red.

Hmmm, a prey item then? But what was eating it? Staring intently, whilst cursing myself for leaving my bins behind, I thought I could detect a bit of movement on the rock. I turned to try and attract Megan's attention but she was still in the car park and scanning elsewhere with her bins. Gently whistling and calling didn't do any good, so I fumbled for my mobile phone and messaged her...

I watched as she put down her bins, looked at her phone and whipped around to look in my direction, before I carefully gestured seaward.

Then I remembered that my little compact camera was in another pocket.

However, it wasn't an Otter, it was three of them, a mum and two cubs. 

Eventually, my pressing need nudged all the adrenaline out of the way and I recalled why I was on the beach in the first place. With that task completed, we continued watching the Otters for a while longer, until the family group disappeared along the coast.

Our other destination that morning was the Ring of Brodgar, for a recce of a walk which is taking place next week. There'd been the first frost of the season and the Lochs of Stenness and Harray were like millponds. 

The hills of North Hoy visible in the distance

The Ring of Brodgar

There was no doubt, it had definitely been the correct decision to seize the moment and enjoy the calm conditions!