Fulmars

The cliffs near the village are now covered in nesting fulmars, and the skies are full of them, gliding round on the stiff breeze. Apparently they are more closely related to albatrosses than gulls and watching them soaring and manoeuvring themselves in the thermals at the cliff tops, you can see the similarity.

They have a very horrid habit of spewing a stinking, fishy, oily, sticky gunge at you if they feel threatened. Seems like a very good defence mechanism!

Ollie goes very near - far too near - to the cliff edge, but always avoids the fulmars. They swoop very close to dogs and to humans as you walk round the cliffs, but that still doesn't make it easy to get a decent shot of them flying!

Day of rest today - aware that I maybe have done a bit too much recently - but it has been great fun! Knitting and reading are on the books for the afternoon. It's a hard life!