Love and Groatie Buckies
There are many Groatie Buckies on Westray’s beaches. It takes real dedication to find them, though.
Fast Fulmar
This Fulmar was so fast without even flapping that it was nearly out of the frame before I captured it.
Fulmar at sunset
The sun is already half-way down past the horizon when this Fulmar flies past, lit up with glorious low golden light.
More guano than Peru
Fortunes were built on the stuff. Entire estates and magnificent country houses like Tyntesfield near Bristol were funded by it. People are …
Good Gannets above!
Have you ever wondered how Gannets manage to dive into the water at such incredible speeds and yet seem to survive without …
Swallows – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
Swallows seem unearthly. Their flight is so elegant, so fast and so controlled they seem as if they inhabit a different world. …
Giving me the sly eye
A seal at Pierowall is wary of me and watches out of the corner of its eye.
The Twa Corbies
The Twa Corbies is a favourite ballad of mine, so I’m delighted to see two Ravens on the cobble and pebble beach …
Somewhere between mild irritation and death
Washed up on the shore at the Bay of Skaill is this beautiful jellyfish.
Starfish
She wishes she could find a starfish here; I go looking for one and find one. She thinks it’s because she wished for it; I think it’s because I looked for it.
Sea Urchin
Spotted a Green Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis at the Bay of Skaill.
Pincer movement
A Hermit Crab emerges from its shell, pincers first; it’s just like me getting out of bed in the morning.
Fulmar sunset flypast
A ragged-tailed Fulmar is alive to every variation in the breeze as the sun sets at Noup Head.
Gannets fly past while the sun sets at Noup Head
The evening is idyllic. Sunshine, hail, rain and a double rainbow in just five minutes. The gusty wind means the Gannets are …
“Write an essay on colour in animals,” they said.
At school I chose to take Geography A Level and due to the intricacies of the timetable, which only one man was …
For the love of Limpets
All Limpets start life as neuters and develop into males at about a year old. When they get to between 4 to …
Raven over Einar
There’s a Raven perched at the back of Einar. By the time I get my camera it is already in flight. I …
A box of finds
Bones picked clean, floats, driftwood branches and strange objects all collected in a box; I love beachcombing.
Sanderling in the seaweed
There’s a juvenile Sanderling on the rocks. It pitter-patters busily among the seaweed. Suddenly I realise there are a flock of them …
Hedgehog – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
Cars are a danger to wildlife. On the road back from Pierowall there is a Hedgehog corpse. Forty years ago I spotted …
Underwater photography Take 2
Beadlet Anemones are vicious territorial monsters. There are both male and female anemones and each of them can become pregnant on their …
Dropping my phone in a rock pool
It takes a lot of courage or stupidity (at least what counts as that in the so called First World) to put …
Just in case you thought seals were cute
Common Seals are wonderful and wild animals. This one at Broughton is yawning and showing its teeth perfectly; three front teeth, one …
“Who you lookin’ at?”
The seals at Broughton on Westray are curious.