6th January – My WDC co-ordinator, Emma, put out a call this afternoon to help recover the body of a Risso’s dolphin that washed up on Warebeth beach. Such deaths are subject to autopsies by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) and the bodies are collected by British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR). I and a couple of other Shorewatchers went along to lend a hand.

Not a pretty sight but that is the way of things in the wild. The bloody grazing is caused by the body being thrown against the rocks. The scarring on the flank is just visible, this is common to Risso’s and is caused by the tentacles of squid, which form a major part of their diet.

As the dolphin weighed about 300 – 400 kgs it took twelve of us to lift it off the shore and on to the trailer.

I’m hoping that this isn’t Ness, the dolphin identified from my photo in the Risso’s catalogue. See September 2022 .

Fellow WDC Shorewatcher, Marilyn, made this little clip of the recovery operation. Marilyn like a cheery tune, regardless of the subject matter.

*** Update: A post mortem was carried out on this dolphin. It was found to have a stomach full of squid, so a healthy animal, feeding well. The lungs, however, had water in them and it was concluded that it drowned, possibly as a result of being caught in a fishing net. Known as “bycatch”, fishing boats frequently catch species of sea life that they don’t want. This is inconvenient for the trawlers but tragic for the victims.

11th January – The local starlings are very partial to mealworms for breakfast, here are a few. I challenge anyone to count them!

12th January – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. A local fishing boat being craned out of the water for maintenance. It’s a tricky operation with not much room for manoeuvre. Luckily there was no wind to hamper the operation.

13th January – H had another session of chemo today. It went well and the Macmillan team are always kind and attentive but H is turning into a bit of a pin cushion.

16th January – Here’s one for the geology buffs amongst you (you know who you are!).

The Kame of Hoy is a rocky outcrop on the northwest tip of Hoy, the snow this morning highlights the stratification of the structure of the cliff. This lump of rock is made up of, from the top, basalt, sandstone, Stromness flags and bostonite.

As I said, interesting for some, a cure for insomnia for others.

23rd January – At last work has started on replacing the en suite bathroom in the downstairs bedroom. Local plumber, Davey Prentice, has done a lot of work for us and was first choice for this project. The original room was designed as a disabled wetroom but that didn’t suit our needs so we are having it changed.

Getting rid of the waste is always a problem but we have friends with a wood burning stove so they will take the timber. Davey and his wife have horses ( see July 2022 ), so he is taking the bath to use as a water trough for them. That, thankfully, doesn’t leave much for me to get rid of.

26th January – Bloomin’ ‘eck! Looks like yours truly is going to be the face, sorry, the back of the Orkney Nature Festival again this year.

They used this photo of me on Shorewatch last year, I should be getting royalties for this!

12th December – While the rest of the country is covered in a blanket of festive snow, the white stuff is lacking in Orkney. Just a dusting on Hoy, it is pretty cold though and the roads were very icy this morning.

16th December – A few days of wintry weather have made the roads around Stromness a bit tricky. H and I have been doing odd jobs around the house, including painting the garden benches. Now, most sensible people would do this in the garden but we brought them into the kitchen! They’ve been taking up a lot of room but we will soon be finished.

The snow has given the hills of Stenness a dusting but the cold weather doesn’t stop the hardier fishermen going out.

The low sun is very photogenic but when reflected off snow and wet roads it can be blinding.

19th December – Adorning one’s home with stag antlers is common practice around highland Scotland but it seems out of place in Orkney as there aren’t any deer! Nevertheless, this set is quite impressive.

Visitors to Stromness will be well acquainted with this little train set in one of the local windows. It is on view all year round but looks particularly festive in December.

22nd December – MV Pentalina was the ferry that ran between Gill’s Bay and St. Margaret’s Hope, it was replaced with a larger vessel and has been in mothballs for several months now. It has just had some engine work carried out in Stromness and is seen here returning from sea trials.

25th December – Happy Christmas everyone.

Not a white Christmas in Orkney but a nice day and this rainbow over the harbour brightens the grey December skies.

26th December – Normally held on Christmas Day, the Ba’ is never held on a Sunday, so Kirkwall’s annual riot between the Uppies and the Doonies is on Boxing Day Monday this year. These photos have been “borrowed” from Orkney.com and The Orcadian.

It’s considered a great honour to start the match by throwing the Ba’ in to the scrum. The man seen here is a previous winner of the competition.

Here we see the two teams coming together in front of the Cathedral in Broad Street. I wouldn’t like to get in between these guys!

To the untrained eye the Ba’ seems utter chaos but the locals appear to understand what is happening and appreciate the subtle nuances of the game!

Here we can see the seething, steaming mass moving into Castle Street. All the shop windows are given timber barriers to prevent players going through the glass.

Unfortunately, only the windows are protected, breeze block walls have to take their chances and some don’t survive, this was in Boot’s car park. I assume the organisers have comprehensive insurance.

By the way, the Doonies won.

27th December – An overnight snowfall and an icy morning doesn’t deter the Stromness swimmers, I don’t think the dog is quite so keen.

This next photo shows the confusingly named Hoy Low lighthouse, which is on Graemsay. The stark backdrop is provided by Ward Hill, which actually is on Hoy. The snow highlights, nicely, the textured surface of the mountain.

31st December – As the sun sets for the last time on 2022, we are taking a few minutes to think of those we lost through the year, family and friends.

H and I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023

2nd November – Received a message of orca in Hoy Sound this morning but after a fruitless trip to Ness Point, I headed up to Yesnaby to see if they were travelling in that direction. It was a beautiful morning but the sea state at the foot of the cliffs at Yesnaby would keep the orca off shore.

So, no cetacean sightings but I did find this interesting piece of fossilised wood. The cliffs here are about 30m above sea level but it’s clear that this area was once the seabed, perhaps this was a piece of driftwood on an ancient ocean.

8th November – A bright sunny day here. I was on the usual Shorewatch duty this morning. No sign of any marine mammals but plenty of birds enjoying the winter sunshine.

21st November – It’s been a lean month for postings. Almost two weeks of gales and rain has caused problems across Scotland and Orkney wasn’t spared. At one point the roads into Kirkwall were closed due to flooding. The weather has restricted our travel to essential journeys only.

One sad item to report today has been the discovery of a fin whale body, washed up on Graemsay, just by the lighthouse in the above photo. This is just opposite the site where I do my Shorewatchng. The authorities have been notified and tests will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death.

22nd November – The first hint of snow this winter with a light dusting on the high ground on Hoy.

25th November – It might look quite bright and sunny but it is, as they say here, absolutely Baltic! This is a meteorological term used in Scotland to refer to a very low temperature, often enforced by a wind chill.

28th November – The patience has paid off, on my Shorewatch this morning I recorded a pod of around ten Common Dolphin. They stayed in the area for about an hour, presumably feeding.

We’ve had a good couple of days of Shorewatching, as a family of Orca passed by Ness Point yesterday. I caught up with them at Warebeth but didn’t manage to get any photographs.

29th November – It’s been a glorious day here, no sightings but whose complaining with sunsets like these.

3rd October – Solar panels are now operational and providing our electrical needs. The process was very easy and we wish we’d done it sooner. Just need to get rid of the scaffolding now.

The weekend storm has left the footpaths in a bit of a mess, with seaweed strewn everywhere. It doesn’t look much but it is incredibly slippery and easy end up on the floor.

9th October – Orkney Island Council are promoting funding available for local artists. As part of the campaign, they did a piece on Jeanne Rose with some nice photos of her working at both the Ness of Brodgar and the Ring of Brodgar.

29th October – A fiery sunrise for what proved to be a beautiful day.

Popped in to Strathborg to have a closer look at this little picnic area. We’ve passed by many times but never stopped. It’s well laid out with various heights of tables for the kids and a cute shelter if the weather turns.

Driving back through Quoyloo, I thought I saw a giraffe! Nah, couldn’t have been….

3rd September – It’s officially autumn now and September is demonstrating the fact with gusto. The month has started with gales and a lot of rain. Despite the poor weather, the Cosmos is holding up well, producing a lot of flowers and feeding bees.

7th September – I just received a link to the newly created Risso’s Dolphin catalogue for the north of Scotland. Created by WDC, these catalogues are dry reading but the scientists seem to like them.

This particular catalogue has a special interest for me as one of the photos used in the identification process was taken at Ness Point. This photograph, probably doesn’t seem very exciting, but Risso’s are identified by the scarring on their dorsal fins, so this pattern is unique.

This is dolphin number 76 and is named Ness, after Ness Point, and the pic has been credited to a well-known local photographer! He is chuffed!

8th September – This is an interesting little video from the BBC about the South Ronaldsay Festival of the Horse. Children dress up in costumes to resemble horses decorated for agricultural shows. These outfits are generally passed down through farming families but the Kirkwall Museum has a nice collection of them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-62826900

The children have miniature ploughing contests on the festival day, in Orkney this is referred to as “plooin'”.

10th September – A delegation of Shorewatchers from around Scotland descended on Ness Point today. No cetaceans but glorious weather. Yours truly and H, far left, in bush hat and high vis.

They are visiting all the Orkney sites this weekend and, so far, have seen minke whales, porpoise and some dolphins. A reasonable trip so far and they still have two sites to visit.

A beautiful day became a beautiful evening, with the full moon reflected across the water.

11th September – Another nice day and whilst most flags are at half mast, Graemsay didn’t get the email!

13th September – Apropos of nothing, today is the 55th anniversary of the inauguration of the world’s shortest, scheduled, commercial flight route. Flying between two Orkney Islands, Westray & Papa Westray, the Loganair flight covers a distance of only 1.7 miles and it can be completed in under one minute, on a nice day.

16th September – With reports of two humpbacks and one fin whale in Scapa Flow, I had to go up to Ness Point. Didn’t see any whales but was rewarded with a pot of gold.

24th September – Phase 1 of our solar panel installation is complete. The scaffolders have erected a working platform for the panel fitters to get access to the roof next week.

It’s a shame that we didn’t do this earlier, the south facing roof catches a lot of direct sunlight.

They were able to carry out their work to the lilt of the pipes, as a lone piper practiced his art in the adjacent GMB garden.

30th September – Yesterday the panels were delivered and neatly stacked, ready for installation.

Today, this was delivered! Heavy rain with 68mph wind. Not ideal for working on a roof.

Understandably the panel installation has been postponed. However, the internal electrical work is still going ahead. But every cloud has a silver lining, as the ferries have been cancelled, the fitters can’t get off the island to go home for the weekend, so they will try again tomorrow or Sunday.

1st August – I’m not fully back on track with this blog, so I will try and fill some gaps.

Our New Zealand flax has performed well this summer and produced four large flower stems, flaxes seem to have done well all over Orkney this year.

9th August – With H and I shielding we avoid going into shops as much as possible, so we’ve been getting grocery deliveries from a well known supermarket who shall remain nameless (Tesco). We are lucky to have the local fish supplier provide a doorstep service on Tuesdays, selling excellent, freshly caught, fish.

The van jingle sounds like an ice cream van but is, appropriately enough, playing “When the boat comes in”.

12th August – After a difficult few weeks for H, things seem to be improving (fingers crossed). For obvious reasons we’ve not been out and about very much, so we haven’t had much to report. We’ll try to get back into the routine of posting in Scapa Views.

Although the past few weeks have been wet and windy our wildflower patch has done fairly well and has attracted a lot of bees and butterflies. We’ll gather the seed again this year and try and increase the planting for next year.

To add to the colour in the south end, we have the artwork in the GMB garden and the yacht club sails.

13th August – A trip to Kirkwall shows how the residents are embracing modern technological advances with the arrival, in the town, of this horseless carriage. Many residents, however, are concerned at the impact this development will have on the town’s saddlers and farriers.

15th August – The neighbouring island of Graemsay is the least populated of Orkney’s islands, with twenty-three inhabitants. It is served by a ferry of the same name, operating out of Stromness. Occasionally traffic congestion becomes too much and they have to take the other car off the island!

26th August – As it was a sunny day we went for a run up to Birsay. Known for the great views and its tidal island, Birsay is always busy with tourists. Here we see the causeway exposed at low tide making it possible to walk to the island and visit lighthouse and the ruins of the Norse church built in the 12th century.

Carrying on from Birsay, we stopped at the small harbour of Tingwall. Tingwall has a RoRo ferry which serves Rousay and some of the smaller islands in this area.

27th August – We ventured down to Burwick which is at the southernmost tip of the Orkney archipelago. From here, on a clear day, you can see Scotland. In this hazy picture we can see the multi-coloured houses in John o’ Groats, 12km away. Tacky or what?

This next photo shows the ill-fated MV Alfred sitting at the terminal in Gill’s Bay, waiting to make the perilous crossing to St. Margaret’s Hope. ( See 6th July post )

Gill’s Bay is the third ferry terminal linking Scotland with Orkney after Aberdeen and Scrabster. For reference, Gill’s Bay is 16km away (10 miles), I used a 500mm lens that needs cleaning.

31st August – A bit of excitement on Shorewatch this morning as a pod of common dolphins spent some time feeding in Hoy Sound. They are occassional visitors here, so it was great to see them.

4th July – Not an auspicious start to July. My lateral flow test is still positive, six days after the first result. The line is a lot fainter but that is still positive.

In spite of our best efforts H picked up the virus and has been really suffering. She went to the Balfour last Friday for an intravenous course of anti-virals but she is still under the weather.

Frustratingly, I feel fine but still can’t go out to the shops or meet with people.

6th July – We don’t know the full details yet but the MV Alfred en route from Gill’s Bay to St Margaret’s Hope ran aground on the island of Swona yesterday. Weather conditions seemed perfect, so it’s a mystery as to what happened.

The vessel was refloated and escorted into the Hope by the Thurso and Longhope lifeboats.

It’s not a laughing matter, as I think some injuries were sustained, but I am reminded of a landing I once had in Gill’s Bay. As the boat collided with the pier, quite hard, a local wag commented on the skippering:

” Aah, he’s done this crossing that many times, he knows exactly what he’s hitting!”

(The photos above are from the BBC website and the Orcadian Online)

14th July – Mid July and summer still hasn’t shown it’s face. I don’t necessarily want a heatwave but it would be nice to go outside without needing gloves!

Our local newspaper has summed up the mood nicely.

17th July – It’s that time of year again in Stromness, the world famous Shopping Week. Seven days of events, fun and games. Hopefully the weather will improve and attract the visitors. The week starts with the Shopping Week Hack.

It was nice to get a wave from our friends Davey Prentice and his wife Kayte as the procession passed the house.

1st June – An auspicious start to June, whilst enjoying a coffee on the garden bench this morning, we had a visit from two bull orca. Passing friends alerted us, so I grabbed a camera but they were already leaving, so my photo is rather fuzzy.

This shot looks over the motorhomes on the Ness Point campsite, I’m not sure if the campers noticed anything unusual!

7th June – We have, finally, taken delivery of the new car, a Kia Niro. Driving automatic electric is a bit different from driving manual petrol and I’m still on a learning curve. Needless to say, we’ve been making a lot of pointless journeys but it’s nice to know that I don’t need to buy petrol any more!

10th June – One of our pointless journeys took us past this scene. I don’t know why but Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name came to mind.

13th June – Another birthday has crept up and surprised H! This year it brought with it a lovely, unique jewellery commission. West Sussex based artist, Tracie Callaghan, made this beautiful pendant of a silver octopus on a piece of ocean jasper, all to H’s own specification.

16th June – Whilst Shorewatching at Ness Point, I regularly talk to one of the local fishermen, Joe Lawton, who sets crab creels in Hoy Sound. This is his little boat, the St Lawrence. Joe comes up to the Point each day to see the sea conditions before he sets out.

It must be the smallest, working fishing boat in Stromness and it does well to not get swamped in the strong tidal currents.

I was working in the garden this afternoon, when Joe’s van pulled up and he presented me with two freshly caught crabs, very much alive and kicking.

We had to do a quick Google search on how to humanely dispatch and cook a live crab. Well worth it – delicious!

22nd June – After a few days of wet and windy weather, it looks light things are improving. We were treated to this beautiful cloudfest over the George Mackay Brown garden at 10 pm this evening.

25th June – Woken at 6 am this morning by the Hamnavoe‘s fog horn. A real pea souper! Three hours later the sun has burned off the fog and it’s turning into a beautiful day.

The day brightened up sufficiently for the great and the good of Orkney’s artistic community to gather in the GMB garden this afternoon, for the formal opening of the new art installation.

Thanks were given to all involved in the design and installation and a number of poems were read out.

26th June – June is proving to be a good month for Orca sightings. This solitary bull passed through Hoy Sound while I was doing my early morning watch at Ness Point.

He managed to take some time out of his journey to give us a bit of an acrobatic display.

28th June – Aaargh!!! I’ve just had the dreaded positive test result! I came home this afternoon feeling fine but very quickly started feeling hot and feverish. Took a test and…

H and I have divided the house up into a clean zone and an infected zone and our paths shouldn’t cross. Fortunately she is still testing negative.

I’m pretty angry about the whole thing, we have been so careful with wearing masks, sanitizing in shops, etc. but there are so many inconsiderate people simply not bothering.

Hopefully I can beat it without passing it on to H.

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

Most attendees stay in a B&B or a campervan but some arrive (and depart) in style. Lady of Avenel was here for the weekend.

1st April – A chilly night and another fall of snow gave a picturesque homecoming for the Hamnavoe as it arrived in Hoy Sound.

Temperatures fell below zero last night, which is unusual for here. Even the redshank was wary of putting a toe in the icy water.

7th April – We were hit by a wild and stormy day yesterday, so we didn’t venture out all day.

But today has been more promising, albeit cold. I managed to do some Shorewatching today, didn’t record any cetaceans but did well with other marine mammals, including two otters.

We don’t record birdlife but some are definitely worth a photo, such as this beautiful Mute Swan gliding by.

12th April – For anyone with an interest in George Mackay Brown, the Orkney Arts Society have established a self-guided tour through Stromness to celebrate his life. The tour includes the Memorial Garden next to our house, shown as No.8 on the map.

https://www.orkney.com/news/gmb-trail

14th April – Feeling rather pleased this morning after receiving a phone call from a neighbour telling me I’d had a photo selected by the Orcadian newspaper, to be used on their Christmas cards for 2022.

I posted the photo here in February and sent it in to the newspaper for a bit of fun, thinking I’d hear no more about it. I suppose we’ll have to buy the cards later in the year.

21st April – Caution: This post contains disturbing imagery.

Today we went south to St Margaret’s Hope village to see an exhibition:
“A View from Orkney: Beautiful Lies and Ugly Truths” by Robinson RR (Ralph) in the Loft Gallery at the moment. Ralph and his wife, Patti, have exhibited in Stromness a few times and we are thrilled to have some of their work on our walls.

Much of Ralph’s work highlights the human tragedy of the refugee crisis that has impacted the countries around the Mediterranean.

“The full horror of the human tragedy unfolding on the shores of Europe was brought home on Wednesday as images of the lifeless body of a young boy encapsulated the extraordinary risks refugees are taking to reach the west.  The picture depicted the dark haired toddler, wearing a bright red T-shirt and shorts, washed up on a beach, lying face down in the surf not far from Turkey’s fashionable resort of Bodrum.”
Helena Smith (Guardian Newspaper, 2nd September 2015)

” Driftwood Toybox is a response to the heartbreaking photograph of this poor child lying dead on the beach.
I imagined a toybox dashed to pieces by the tides and rocks of a foreign coast and its precious contents spilled, spoiled and scattered along the shore.  Its cargo of memories, careless laughter, joyous imaginings and dreams of fantastic voyages; puzzles, toys and games and gifts from loved ones, once stowed safely away, now broken, shattered, shivered and pitched up by a cold, cruel sea.”   Robinson RR