Bird Fair, Orkney and St Kilda

Well it has been a pretty busy time since getting back to the UK! We had a pretty successful Bird Fair over the weekend, with numbers of people attending seeming to be down on usual, but some good interest, and great to make contact with some other tour operators who would like to come to New Zealand. So some exciting things to look forward to with regards to our NZ tours. As usual a lot of good food and fun times with the rest of the kiwi operators and others, and great to catch up with a bunch of good friends and make some new ones.

Then after the Bird Fair it was on the train to Edinburgh where I got onto the MS Island Sky. We are doing a trip down the west coast, ending up in Portsmouth. Yesterday we stopped at Orkney, visiting the usual sites, and as we left did a pass by the Old Man of Hoy. The light was absolutely spectacular, with my previous visits having been with dark conditions or raining. Luckily a massive rain storm had just passed, and the sun shone with a massive rainbow right along the cliffs, just gorgeous. So got some nice shots.

Then today we landed on St Kilda, my 8th visit I think, managing to land everytime to date…luckily! The weather was a little on and off, but we managed to dodge most of the rain showers. I led a walk up to 'The Gap' where we had lovely views out over the stacks, and a few interesting flowers. Arctic and great skuas were about, and we had views of the wren, meadow pipits and wheatears. But the focus for me was a snowy owl which had been on the island most of the summer. I have always dreamt of seeing this bird, but missed them at other places where I've been. So it was a real trek up and over to the other side of the island, and scanning for about five minutes I thought this was going to be another wasted trip…but then I spotted a white blob right down in the bottom of the valley on a broken down stone cleat. Running down into the valley it was obvious this was the bird as we got closer, and managed to get reasonably close with some great views and a couple of record shots. Awesome - absolutely stoked! Lifer!


Gary Melville and Lynette Buurman (Albatross Encounter) and Sav at the Bird Fair


The lightouse on Bass Rock backlit with hundreds of gannets in flight


Northern gannets flying over the Bass Rock colony


The lightouse again with gannets


Northern gannet flying over the ship towards the Bass


Cathedral against a stormy sky at Stromness, Orkney


The cliffs of Hoy, with the 'Old Man of Hoy' in the distance


The cliffs of Hoy with a stunning rainbow over them


Double rainbow…what does it mean??!!


Gold at the end of the rainbow perhaps


The rainbow coming up out of the cliffs of Hoy


The Old Man of Hoy in stunning light


The Old Man, imagine climbing that


Again' '
Again' '
The Old Man, with full frontal light


Village Bay on St Kilda with the ship anchored


Snowy owl! What a beauty!


In flight


In flight with Soay sheep in the background