Putting On The Ritz

It wasn't a promising start to the day. It started raining in Birsay at around 8:30am and pretty much stayed that way all morning. It was just a smir really but the wind was up a little too so just to be sure I gave the office a phone before we left just to make sure the ferry was still running. All good and so began part two of the Great Puffin Hunt.

I'm beginning to think that Orkney Islands Council just makes up stories of large colonies of puffins just to get holidaymakers up here. I'm also beginning to think that in fact there's one wee puffin hired by said council to fly from island to island to make appearances. There was a definite look of recognition in this wee guy's face when he came out of his cliff side burrow this afternoon... had we met somewhere before? Marwick Head perhaps?!!

To be fair, if I were a puffin I would have chosen to stay indoors too today. It was colder than a cold thing standing at the edge of the cliff overlooking the Castle o'Burrian sea stack with a cruel wind snapping at anything standing taller than an inch off the ground. This wee guy though came out three times during our stay to give us a wee performance and what a star he was, each time testing his wings and chuckling at the fulmars struggling to land in the wicked wind. On his third visit he swooped down from his perch, circled the stack before diving over the water and up and round the headland to perform an inch perfect landing back on his ledge. Extremely happy with himself he wandered back into his burrow for the last time. Job done!

Same for me. Outrageously high ISO for this kind of shot due to the wet, grey day this and the included extras are surprisingly straight out of camera except for the crops. I've also included a couple of other subjects in there which have gone through my normal mono tinted spectacles but the star of the show quite rightly takes centre stage tonight with his Fred Astaire slide... Take a bow young man!

Gitama's take on the day can be found here.