Sitting in the window seat looking over the fields and out to sea I see a huge brown raptor flying towards Einar. It looks like a chunky owl until I see the characteristic white rump and long tail. With a wingspan of over a metre, massive fingers of feathers on its wings and a huge head, it’s heading towards our garden. It’s a full grown female, with eyes and ears only for small birds and mammals. I run outside shouting for the family to come and watch as it hunts along the side of our field and then it is gone, disappearing over the brow of the hill.

Awe inspiring.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Hen_Harrier

From Bill Oddie’s How to Watch Wildlife – Orkney’s famous and very rare hen harriers.

Noup Head, the RSPB reserve, is seabird city. Here is a Fulmar, crouching  ungainly on the cliffs, waiting to wheel into the air.

We’re up at dawn to see the Tammie Norries (Puffins), a short walk from our house, at the Castle o’ Burrian on Westray.

Footprints of gulls pattern the sand.

A Fulmar glides past like a flying boat over the Knowe o’ Skea on Westray.