Uria aalge

There’s a Common Guillemot, Uria aalge, flying past. There’s a colony perched on a rock in Torbay and they fly regularly across the sea in looping paths. The boat we are on is bobbing up and down beside them, at a safe distance so we don’t interfere with their natural behaviour.

This one is ‘wearing spectacles’, as it’s a Bridled Guillemot. It has the shape of its head feathers outlined in white.

They are fast but not very manoeuvrable in the air. Underwater, however, they are as agile as it’s possible to be. I’ve got several videos of them fishing in Kirkwall harbour which I really must select and edit so you can see them in all their glory in their natural element.

Charming, aren’t they?