2nd April – A bright start to April, H made the ascent to the Citadel viewpoint and got this excellent shot of the view across the golf course.
4th April – The gulls must love the ploughing season, this tractor in Stenness is being mobbed.
It’s a busy time for farmers, the fields need to be turned over and the lambs are being born. It’s still too wet and cold, though, to let the cattle out. There will be a stampede when the shed doors are opened!
6th April – This is becoming a regular pensioners day out, the Saturday vigil for Gaza in Kirkwall. It would be nice to see more young people attend and show support and awareness.
9th April – I think as the house is east facing and with the afternoon sun behind us we do seem to get a lot of full rainbows. H captured this one across the harbour today.
We’ve yet to find the pot of gold, though. I think the Trowie folk keep it well hidden.
11th April – A nice piece from Emma Steel for all the WDC volunteers around Scotland: “Alice Walters and I are at the European Cetacean Society Conference this week and today we have the privilege of presenting this poster on behalf of you – and your incredible effort over the Shorewatch Winter Challenge the last 3 winters. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has taken part or supported Shorewatch, this is such a fantastic achievement & you should all be super proud!“
The observant amongst you will have spotted the breaching Orca photo on the bottom row credited to yours truly.
It’s nice to think that the hours standing in the cold wind is actually appreciated by the science community.
This is the original photo.
15th April – A nice, dry, windless day, so we went over to Firth Park in Finstown for a walk. We had visited the park before but never appreciated how large it was. There are still a lot of spring flowers showing but promising signs of new growth everywhere,
There is an all-ability path which meanders through different areas of planting, which, although just waking up just now, will look great in the summer – if it comes!
A number of architectural features add interest and this stone arch draws the visitor into the next part of the garden. We will definitely return in the summer.
17th April – Emma has written an interesting piece on our winter watched over the past three years and the data they have produced.
The chap in the snowy picture of Ness Point is my fellow watcher, Kevin, from Stenness.
22nd April – We had a little bit of excitement on the shore this afternoon. A RIB slipped its mooring in the harbour and drifted down to Well Park. A local chap spotted it and was able to get hold of the mooring rope and hang on until help arrived.
He did well as the boat was quite heavy and pulling to get back to sea! The incident resulted in both the Lifeboat and the Coastguard getting involved.
Scapa Views 
Brilliant photo, Neil. Well done! I also love the early morning photo looking over to Hoy. You really get a good sense of the terrain.
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