Seal

I caught the bus to just beyond Evie and walked down to the shore. A pretty grey day as I walked north and slow going as the rocks underfoot were very slippery. Several common seals were hauled out and this one was very reluctant to get wet.
Lots of birds- my first purple sandpipers of the autumn, turnstones, ringed plover, dunlin, masses of snipe, bar-tailed godwits, red-breasted mergansers etc.
As I walked along the road toward the village I saw a large white bird fly toward the Sound of Eynhallow. It turned- a white crossbow against the dark blue of the sea- it could only be a gyr falcon. It is a very rare visitor to the UK and a bird this white was probably all the way from Greenland. I put the word out and others looked later but to no avail.