Christine's walking & birds blog

It was an exciting day to be at sea with the changeable weather producing several stunning rainbows. One lends grace to bulk carrier Magic Nebula; various dark birds wheeling about between us made the heart beat a little faster - but going on their size compared with the adults, these were clearly juvenile gannets rather than shearwaters. Nice to see so many healthy gannets (loads more right across the Minch) - but not quite what I wanted.

At Stornoway, the usual hoodie flew in to hoover up any scraps of food on the open deck.

I had hoped for sooty shearwater as we saw several on October 15th last year; and finally, I spotted what might have been a couple of sooties - although the second bird could just as easily be a Manxie. Dunno.

One funny thing happened as we pulled into Stornoway. I was eating my sandwiches on the open deck and an American woman approached me with her smartphone and asked if I would do her a favour. She explained that she was making up an album with the theme of "old lady on boats" - and for a second I thought she was going to say "So can I take your photo?" I was just about to bop her one while yelling "Who are you calling old?" when she followed up with "So would you take my photo standing over there?" Oh, that's all right then. Mind you, I am old - it's just that I don't like other people pointing it out! I'm 71 and my poor old rusting car is 17. Which of us will give up the ghost first?

Reasons to be cheerful lately:  Two men being charged with assault against the young man who shouted at "prince" Andrew in Edinburgh and will himself face charges. It appeared from video clips that the "heckler" (a slight individual who looked younger than his 22 years) was yanked backwards by his collar so viciously that he ended up on the ground. His timing was poor - after all, someone had died and a family was grieving, etc - but that didn't justify such physical violence being used against him, and I don't think he should be charged with anything.

Reasons to be glum: Liz Truss.