Looking Westward

A bit of an exciting day, though not in a particularly good way. I saw the first stoat spotted in the village!

It was skipping across the grass at the top of the slipway. Bold as brass! Later, on our walk up to the cliffs, I spoke to H&R. We were each bursting to tell the other other about seeing it! Lovely to see, such inquisitive little faces and attractive looking little creatures but definitely vermin.

They are becoming a real pest in Orkney because of the importance of the ground nesting birds. There are lots of traps set for them, but mostly it is rats which have been caught. The thinking is that they came into Orkney in straw bales, brought up from South for bedding animals over winter.