May 2022

1st May – It’s the time of year when the handsome Eider ducks are gathering, nesting and producing youngsters.

As the UK’s largest duck species they should be able to look after themselves but they fall victim to predation by Great Skuas, known as Bonxies in Orkney. This one is having an Eider duckling for lunch.

5th May – We are now ready for the arrival of an electric car. The charging unit has been installed this morning and is up and running. We just need the car now!

15th May – We’ve been away for a week down in Perthshire. We chose a self-catering place in Kirkmichael, halfway between Pitlochry and Blairgowrie.

It was a lovely little chalet on a farm with a terrific woodland outlook. It was even woodier last year but a storm took down a large number of the trees!

The setting was perfect for bird spotting and our hosts provided a bucket of peanuts for us to put out to attract feathered visitors. Here are a few of the birds we had in the garden, we counted twenty species in total.

Kirkmichael makes a good base for exploring the northeast corner of Perthshire and across to Angus.

We roamed as far as Stonehaven and stopped at the impressive Dunnottar Castle. The castle is built on a rocky promontory overlooking the sea and must have been virtually impregnable.

A word of warning, if you are planning a visit, take a defibrillator, as the access is rather challenging and not for the faint hearted!

A trip to Angus is not complete without a visit to Dundee and the iconic V&A. Featuring Scottish design works, the museum is well worth a visit.

We try to keep off the main roads when travelling around, there can be more to see tucked away on the B roads. While passing through Glenisla we came across Forter Castle, built in 1560 by James Ogilvy, the 5th Lord of Airlie, it’s a classic example of a Scottish fortified homestead.

If you would like to stay here, Forter Castle is available to hire (self-catering) by the week, it sleeps twelve, with prices ranging from £5k per week off season, up to £9k per week for the Christmas / New Year period. A snip!

Saturday was our last day in the chalet and we had to get an early start to get to Scrabster in plenty of time for the ferry. I think we were quite quiet as we loaded the car as we don’t appear to have woken the neighbour.

20th May – We’re getting back into our home routine now and we never tire of the sunrise across the harbour. H was up at 4:30 am to catch this one!

We had an open day at Ness Point today, to raise the profile of WDC Shorewatch. Quite a few people came and many showed an interest in taking part. This shows some of the participants being shown how to use the equipment by Emma. Yours truly in high vis at far right.

26th May – It may be warm and sunny in the south but it’s still chilly here. We’ve just had a squally shower this afternoon which included a flurry of snow! However, it left us with this beautiful double rainbow.

30th May – The first (post-covid) Orkney Folk Festival finished yesterday. Stromness has been packed. We were unable to attend but, by all accounts, the festival was a great success. Here are some pics from Orkney.com