Surf's up

A calm day so seaduck hunting on Wednesday. That's after watching an Otter family, female and two kits on Loch of Harray earlier on (not in the 1Km square though).

From distance I thought there were two Surf Scoter with a small group of Velvets so I parked up at Quanterness and walked down to the sea to confirm them. There was a nice Snow Bunting flock down there as well. Of note was a pack of more than 50 Great Northerns fishing together with perhaps 80 together in the bay.

The photo of the Surfies perhaps not that impressive.

In the evening I got a message, "Was I interested in a boat trip to get better views of the Surf Scoters?" 

Early this morning and I got Wood Mouse below the feeders, I must try to photograph that tomorrow. Out to Kirkwall to join the boat team. Unfortunately the light was poor and the wind was just a bit more than ideal. All the same, good views of the Surfies and a good number of Velvet Scoters were obtained. The GNDs seem to have disappeared. We grilled the Eider flock but could find nothing more.

Thanks to Tim Dean for organising this and PP for expert skippering.

The Eider flock, c700 all told.

Surfies

Grilling the Velvets to look for the other very rare but similar looking species.

Pale, winter Tystie.