Stumbling across a Great Skua
Great Skuas are one of my favourite birds. They are a constant delight as they patrol the shoreline, flying low and surprising us as they sail effortlessly past.
This time I’ve been lucky and stumbled across one close by on Papa Westray:
What a magnificent beast:
I manœuvre around to get a plain background, hoping that it won’t fly.
I’ve never been this close and not been attacked. I think that’s probably a surprise to us both.
When it does take off it shows its characteristic white wing flashes:
And then lands further away to preserve its dignity.
What a beautiful encounter.
More Great Skuas
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The Great Skua in the style of Robert Macfarlane – according to Chat GPT I thought it would be a bit of fun to ask an artificial intelligence website to “Write about the Great… read more
The Great Skua, the Ravens and the Rabbit There are fifty Ravens at the Sands o' Maesan. (I know that because I counted them from my photographs when… read more
And still the chase goes on… The Arctic Tern chicks have fledged, yet Great Skuas still patrol and Arctic Tern parents still chase them off. It's… read more Flashy wings The go-faster stripes on this Great Skua are very distinctive. They're very Starsky & Hutch and their 1976 Ford Gran… read more
Bonxies Bonxie is the name for the Great Skua, Stercorarius skua, here in Orkney. It's the Norse name for them. If… read more
Arctic Skua attacking a Kittiwake I've seen Great Skuas attacking juvenile Kittiwakes on Westray. They pluck them out of the air and peck them to… read more
