Surfin' Westray

A recent work-related trip to the island of Westray gave Megan the opportunity to tag along to carry out a recce for Wild Orkney Walks whilst I was attending to a couple of repairs. The walk in question is to the Castle o' Burrian, a rock stack on the east coast of Westray, which will soon be seeing the welcome return of a colony of Puffins for their breeding season. 

Once I had completed my tasks, I drove to the small car park by the ruined Corn Mill and headed north along the clifftop path above Rack Wick. Here too, in a few weeks, will hopefully be yet more Puffins. I say "hopefully", because over the Winter severe storms in the Bay of Biscay resulted in many dead Puffins being washed ashore around the coasts of Spain, France and Britain.

Megan and I sat on the cliff top opposite the Castle and ate our lunch, watching the comings and goings of Fulmars, Rock Doves and various species of gulls. In the surf at the base of the rock stack, a Shag was diving for food, its glossy green plumage and distinctive crest visible whenever it surfaced.

With a few more hours until the return ferry, I accompanied Megan on the next part of her route, walking across the island at a narrow point to the Bay of Tafts. Here, a beach of white sand stretched into the distance, and we busied ourselves trying to spot and identify waders and gulls foraging on the tide line.

No sooner had we begun walking along the beach, when we both paused simultaneously in reaction to a buzzy bird call. Somewhere ahead, not too far ahead, was a flock of Twite. These small finches are becoming increasingly rare due to the loss of their preferred habitat of seed-rich grasslands. With her eagle eyes recalibrated to a smaller target, Megan indicated a movement amongst the seaweed at the strand line, where half a dozen Twite were managing to find seeds trapped within the debris.

Not many steps later, and with Megan "in the zone", she pointed out a couple of Snow Buntings. These gorgeous wee birds were foraging for seeds and insects in the crevices between the rocks at the top of the beach. They are presumably on their journey back to the Arctic to breed, and it was lovely to hear their gentle trilling calls. 

The Twite had now moved to the top of the low cliffs surrounding the bay and were busy preening. Whilst Megan watched them, I footled about with optics, eventually managing a panorama of the beach and a cropped close-up of the industrious finches.

As I write, several days later, the weather has reverted to gales and hail, so any fresh air is limited to short forays into the garden between showers to rescue stricken Daffodils. We're swiftly running out of vases to display them all. What signs of Spring are you enjoying this weekend?