Oh! What a lovely day

It's peed it down all day. Seawatching from 7.30 at Pt Buckquoy (2 hours) and then at Yesnaby (1 hour)

2 hour seawatch from pt of Buckquoy produced: 07:30 - 09:30

Fulmar: 2,880

Sooty: 3

Manx: 10

Gannet: 360

Bonxie: 6

Teal: 14

Dunlin: 3

Arctic Skua:1 (pp, ad)

GBbGull: 3

herring Gull: 1

All west

Eider, LBbGull (1, ad), Shag were all hanging about.

Then an hour from Yesnaby (oh, yes that was fun, car now slightly damp inside) 09:50 - 10:50

Fulmar: 480

Manx: 2

Gannet: 36

Arctic tern: 2

Kittiwake: 2 (juv)

Bonxie: 6

Wigeon: 6

All south, there was some northerly movement as well but it was too hard to count that as well.

The most striking thing for me is the lack of small skuas.The winds have not been the best for these but all the same. Over the last two days I've seen one adult Arctic. Maybe they'll come through later but.....

A tad disappointing. Interesting though. The Fulmar rate / 5 mins was 134 at Buckquoy when I left and only 36 when I got to Yesnaby, so a lot of them are going somewhere inbetween. I reckon a lot turn around, some head out and some.... die on the roads. My smelly friend departed this realm overnight. I'm guessing it was much less well than I thought. Currently rather a lot are being rescued from the fields daily on North Ron.

More tourist trouble whilst watching at Yesnaby. A large four wheel drive pulled up, sat near me for a bit (they must have seen the scope, surely they realised I was viewing the sea) and then drove into part of my spot, between me and the sea, and sat there. Gggrrrrrrr.....

 Getoutatheway....

The tourist industry is of course vital to Orkney's economy and all visitors are welcomed with much hospitality etc - just don't park/stand in front of me when I'm seawatching....

Ellen and her new friend, Sydney (a bearded dragon) Syd has grown rather a lot in a month, about 5mm a day, she's due to get a great deal larger yet. Most fun is unpacking her grub, getting 1000 angry and very active crickets into a quite small tank is a bit of a lark, involving some shreaking and general kerfuffle.