Puffin....

All the work was done so we had one day of holiday before the long trek south. Most of our time had been spent on West Mainland, so we decided to head to East Mainland, to gives us a better overall perspective of the archipelago. We had been warned that it wasn't quite so scenic, but I wanted to see oysterplant, which has its main populations on sandy beaches on that side of the island.

Our route took us across three of the Churchill Barriers which link the Mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay. The Churchill Barriers were originally constructed during World War II, on the orders of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, to protect the eastern approaches to the British home fleet anchorage in Scapa flow. The causeways were constructed using gabions, wire cages filled with rocks, which were dropped into the channel and then topped with large concrete blocks. Some 40,000 cubic metres of rock were deposited in the water, which could be anything up to 70 feet in depth, using overhead cableways known as blondins. This was then topped by 300,000 tonnes of concrete blocks, which forms the routes visible today. Rock was quarried locally on Orkney, while the concrete blocks were cast on the islands. The project was huge, and involved the construction of a railway to transport the stone and concrete to the construction area, the overhead cableways, piers on the islands, and power stations to provide electricity.

The three most northerly barriers still look much as they did when they were built, although the roads that pass over them have been upgraded over the years. The fourth barrier and the shores of the islands it connects have grown an accumulation of sand, giving the islands the appearance of being closer than they really are. We stopped on the north side of the fourth barrier, and soon found the oysterplant, a sprawling plant with the most beautiful blue flowers and succulent greyish leaves, which was duly photographed. We were also excited to find a colony of nesting little terns and a family of ringed plover, both unexpected.

After a picnic on another sandy beach further north, we looked at the map to try and pinpoint somewhere to spend the afternoon. I spotted something called The Gloup, which I decided sounded interesting. When we arrived we found that we were actually at Mull Head Local Nature Reserve, an area of about 160 hectares of heathland and grassland at the north-east tip of Deerness. The Gloup itself is a long sea cave which has collapsed on the landward side, leaving a large chasm still joined to the sea through a broad arch. When we went down to look at it we were excited to see several pairs of black guillemots perching on the sheer cliffs.

We decided to do a 5.6km walk round the periphery of the nature reserve, which largely followed the coastal cliffs. It was a wonderful site - the maritime heath had large quantities of grass-of-Parnassus and there were flocks of twite sheltering among the rocky outcrops. The low cliffs were teeming with seabirds including shags, kittiwakes, fulmars and several species of gull. Gannets were feeding near the coast, executing their trademark dive-bombing action, and a grey seal seemed to enjoy watching me as much I as I enjoyed watching him. The heathland itself was the breeding area for great skuas (bonxies) and arctic skuas (scootie allens), and we saw plenty of the former, including a trio of birds around their nest. Arctic skuas were much rarer, though.

As we approached Mull Head the cliffs became much higher and more rugged, and there were razorbills and guillemots on them. I spotted some birds flying in the bay, which I was sure were puffins. Of course, it had to be the one day that we left the binoculars in the cottage! The probable puffins seemed to be disappearing below us, so we moved round to a position where we could see the cliff face, and realised there were loads of puffins perching on the narrow ledges.

I'm not that good with heights but I got very close to the edge of the cliffs with my 300mm lens, to try and get a decent photograph. They were very distant, and I found trying to focus on a tiny dot of a puffin in a very strong wind was not easy. The posted image has been heavily cropped, but I just had to post a picture of such an iconic bird, that formed an important part of our holiday.

I thought that the day couldn't get any better but on the way back to the car we got a very brief sighting of a great yellow bumblebee. This species is associated with extensive areas of herb-rich grasslands that support a large number of plant species with flowers having a long corolla, notably labiates, legumes such as red clover, and composites such as thistles and common knapweed - plants which are generally absent from improved or intensively managed ground.

It was formerly distributed throughout Britain, but is now restricted to northern and western Scotland, with the main sites in the Hebrides, Orkney, Sutherland and Caithness. We'd been looking out for one all week, but had given up hope, because of the extremely cold, dull weather conditions. It was definitely the icing on the cake, though I'll have to go back to Orkney to get a decent photograph!