Cattie-face
There’s been a Cattie-face (a Short-Eared Owl) hunting in Skelwick for months now. I see it often when I travel to the local shop, Peter Miller’s, for essentials, like Fattie Cutties or duck eggs. This time I’m near a field gate, so stop the car without danger of falling into a drainage ditch and get my camera off the passenger seat, where it’s been riding shotgun, teetering on the edge of setting off the ‘seatbelt not on’ alarm.
It’s hunting low over the docks in an empty pasture field.
I shelter from its gaze at the back of the car as it works the field, eager for an Orkney Vole. Then it heads towards me and passes just in front of the car. I’m grateful that it’s not rush-hour here, as a dozen cars would be heading for the ferry to the Mainland of Orkney then. It crosses the road without looking both ways and carries on its way out of sight.
Wow.
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