Loch of Harray

I went out to Brodgar RSPB reserve to volunteer today. We were creating sort of 'lazy-beds', improving the soil by moving seaweed from the edge of Loch of Stenness and spreading it onto two long strips which will be seeded up with nettle once it has rotted down. This is to provide cover and encourage breeding by corncrakes (crex crex), a bird that I remember as fairly common around my grandparents' farms in Donegal, but which has declined hugely in Ireland and the UK. The rain stayed off and as it was hard work, we didn't feel the cold as we forked through the ice and snow at the loch-edge to get the seaweed.