Sitting pretty

A little further along the coast of Papa Westray I see an Arctic Skua sitting on a wall. It’s really not what I expected to see there. I expect it to fly as soon as it sees me, but it doesn’t. They are confident characters. I suspect it expects me to be frightened of it, rather than the other way around.

It looks like royalty to me, enthroned on the stone:

Eventually it flies.

Later, a light-morph Arctic Skua comes past.

I’m ever so slightly in love with them.

It’s a delight to spend time with them, if a little nerve-wracking.

They could take a chunk out of me at any time.