Christine's walking & birds blog

The ferry was an hour late getting to Ullapool this morning; but after a tedious wait in the terminal we were eventually all aboard and listening to an announcement that they should be able to claw back five minutes off the lost time on the sailing back to Stornoway. Oh great, I thought, as if spotting things from the ferry isn't hard enough, we'll now be going even faster! Consolation was found in the discovery that I'm now fairly good at picking out, from the groups of black and white auks on the water, similar gatherings of Manx shearwaters.

I should add, that these birds were fairly distant and the pics highly cropped - not blowing my own trumpet, just pleased that I've learnt something from my fraught and frantic pelagics over the last few years. A pale-form skua, probably Arctic, was seen in the same area - on the far side of the Minch.

This is looking back at two cruise ships anchored near Stornoway; the Azaman Pursuit and the Bolette. Pod-like tenders buzzed about, carrying passengers into the harbour.

Birds seen in the harbour: The usual hoodie, a fly-over red-throated diver, a heron, a black guillemot, and a common tern which flew past carrying a fish.

As we set off again, I was on the funnel rail and ready for the shearwaters. They were lifting off from the water, still distant, and I snapped madly (and badly) as wave after wave streamed past. I reckon there must have been at least 100 Manx shearwaters; at any rate, this was the most I've ever seen and it was a sight worth seeing.

It was Greger's suggestion that I go on the ferry today as the weather forecast was good and because my car is playing up so I daren't go far in it. He stayed at home thanks to a shocking cold and cough - but he was there to meet me when the ferry docked, and he'd made a very welcome spagbol which was just the job after a hard day's birding at sea! What a lucky lady I am.