Excalibur

The early morning was grey, but it was brightening so I thought I would walk the east shore of Scapa Bay as far as St Mary's in Holm. Impossible to keep to the shore all the way as the cliffs become too sheer and fall straight into the sea, even at low tide, so I had to scramble up to the headlands.

The afternoon was beautiful and sunny. Lots of birds on the shore; hundreds of curlews, bar-tailed godwits, turnstones, some red-breasted mergansers, long-tailed ducks and others also with long names. A pair of ravens rose from the cliff where they will already be nest-building. I suppose they nest so early so that their fledglings can be fed on eggs and nestlings of the seabirds as soon as they appear.
The remains of this mystical sword proved impossible to pull from the rock. Didn't want to be king anyway.
More photos here.