Christine's walking & birds blog

Greger was off to Inverness to get the Toyota serviced, and I asked if he minded my doing a pelagic without him. He said he didn't, but added that he always gets nervous when I go on the ferry alone. "Just stay calm and don't let people bother you," was his advice. I promised to pat every dog I encountered and to tell those who asked about whales and dolphins to go and relax in the lounge and I would run down and let them know if I saw any.

Dark clouds above threatened rain as the ferry set off but we left these behind and enjoyed the bright weather that had been forecast - even if it was a trifle windier.

For a change, I stood at the short rail in front of the funnel on the upper deck. Two male birders came and stood to my left, facing forward, while the third one of their party stood behind me. When a woman who'd been standing by the funnel left he took her place. He was taller than me so he also saw most birds before I did and the three of them kept calling everything out. The one bird I found for myself was a distant skua harassing a kittiwake; I couldn't tell what it was at the time, but from the poor picture I got it appears that the skua is maybe towing behind it a little too much baggage (both lengthways and widthways) for great, Arctic, or long-tailed; so maybe it was a pomarine skua.

Suddenly the two male birders in front of me started to lean way out over the rail, obstructing my view. Apparently there were loads of shearwaters sitting on the water and taking flight as the ferry passed, but by the time I could see them they were distant and I failed to get any photos. It could have been my best shearwater day so far. After that things were fairly quiet. Eventually I realised that I was blooming cold and went down to the lower seating deck, where, away from the wind, I basked in the sun. When we reached Stornoway, my hands were still tingling from the blood flowing back.