On Our Travels Again - Orkney

 Off we go again.....

We started a two week holiday by driving up to Scrabster to get the evening ferry to Stromness on Orkney Mainland. It was nine years since our last visit, when we went in February for a slim chance of seeing the Northern Lights, which we didn't! But the birding was good as we remember.

For the whole 8 days on Orkney the wind was  shall we say 'keen' to put it mildly, lots of showers, that we mostly managed to avoid, but thankfully there were 4 hides not too far from out digs in St. Mary's to take shelter in. (3 RSPB and 1 Community hide)

So we started the next day by visiting The Loons RSPB.....

Some Mute Swans posing nicely in front of the Loons hide.

The hide at the Loons overlooks some pools, but the main action is further away, where Lapwing, Curlew, Redshank, Godwit and Snipe are nesting and foraging in the boggy meadows and reeds. I think I have some shots from later in the week. Distant Hare were seen in the adjacent fields so that was nice, as well as Teal, Shelduck, Tufted Duck, Little Grebe, Mallard, Coot and Moorhen in the further away pools. They could really do with another hide further around the reserve., although the Listening Wall is a good viewpoint with parking.

We drove on to the coast at the Bay of Skaill, where there were quite a few waders about, Dunlin, Sanderling, Turnstone and Ringed Plover. The wind was so strong though we could hardly open the car doors, so photographic opportunities were limited as the wind was buffeting the camera around, I could hardly keep it still, so just the one picture for you!

We carried on exploring and ended up at the Ring of Brodgar, so a couple of tourist photos to be going on with.... The Stones...

there were a few Orchids around the site, I think this is a Northern Marsh Orchid, but I'm willing to be corrected!

More of the ring,

and there is plenty of Cotton Grass (Bog Cotton) on the islands.

After the ring we found a nice little viewpoint on the opposite side of the Loch of Harray to have a stop and a brew, as we approached it, we couldn't believe a male Hen Harrier came and flew alongside the car, we sopped and I jumped out and tried to get a photo, this was the best of a bad bunch as it flew on ahead of us:

We did watch it for a while as it hunted in the nearby fields. This was the first of many Hen Harrier sightings.

One of the must see sights on Orkney are the Churchill Barriers and the Scapa Flow Wrecks, I won't go into the history, but if you want to know more go to:

Scapa Flow Wrecks

Here's a shot of one of the wrecks at Barrier No 2:

Finally for day 1! We discovered a wildlife hide a couple of minutes from where we staying in St. Mary's. It overlooked Loch Ayre, a very small loch on the edge of St Mary's. There were loads of Arctic Terns using it to bathe after fishing out at sea, unfortunately the weather and light was awful, but here you go:

Black-headed Gull and Red-breasted Merganser,

Male Red-breasted Merganser,

Male Eider,

Mute Swans with Cygnets,

Female Eiders with Eiderlings (is that a word?),

So that'll do for starters...don't want you to get bored...yet!!