Thursday, August 14, 2025
Whether it was a haar or low cloud hanging over the hills and the village, we felt certain it would burn off, and set off on our latest pelagic with optimism. Unfortunately, a good start bird-wise was slightly marred by a small accident. Scanning the water near Priest Island, I got onto a petrel some distance ahead, alerted Greger, and moved round towards the lifeboat, desperately clicking into the scene without zooming as I'd already lost the bird. We laughed at the result later - I did actually get the petrel, in the bottom left of the picture.
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My excitement (I never learn to hide it!) had been clocked by several people who immediately rushed up to the rail, in hopes presumably of something more visible than this tiny bird, and I walked back round to Greger without noticing that the man nearby had a small dog. I decided to go to the other side of the boat, turned and tried to take a step - and found myself falling forward and hitting the deck! I joked on my last pelagic post about tripping over dog - but it was actually the taut lead I'd tripped over. I'm afraid the air was blue with some regrettable language as I gathered myself together and got up, terrified at first that I'd damaged my camera. I tried it out on Greger and the sea mist (which, incidentally, lasted until just before we reached Stornoway).
The next excitement was a skua that clearly wasn't a bonxie - my first Arctic of the year, I think.
The only other bird of note on the outward trip was a single Manx shearwater. We sailed into Stornoway in lovely sunshine, but by the time we left the mist had become so thick that the ferry sounded its horn several times. A cruise ship in the new dock, seen well as we sailed in, was now invisible! A bit later there was a slight lifting of the mist and suddenly the sea was alive with birds; we scanned frantically, spotting a couple of sooty shearwaters among kittiwakes.
Again, the mist or cloud gave way as we neared Ullapool, with a persistent fragment lying across Isle Martin.
The remains of the day.
// posted by Christine @ 2:16 PM 
