Cormorant Sunset

Turned out to be a very pleasant day with a stiff westerly wind, which was ideal for the church work party to cut down and burn some more rhododendrons. As is our want, me and Mrs B carried on working into the afternoon long after everyone else had gone home. However it meant we were able to tidy up some other trees that had been bothering us.

As a reward for all our hard work we decided to treat ourselves to a run round to the west coast and dinner at the Putechan Hotel, a former hunting lodge of the Duke of Argyll, which reopened a couple of months ago after being revamped following it lying empty for a number of years. Anyway, its been done up beautifully and the food and service were excellent, although it was maybe a bit on the pricey side. Mrs B had the fish and three times cooked chips, which was served on a roof slate! It even had the two holes for the nails! I had the "Three Little Pigs" or pork served 3 ways, which was really superb.

As you can imagine, I had something of an ulterior motive in driving round to the west coast. Yes you guessed it, I had the chance of maybe blipping a sunset! Unfortunately, the sky wasn't looking too promising and thin layers of clouds made everything a bit milky. I kept an eye on it during dinner and by good luck (or maybe that should be my careful planning!) we finished eating 30 minutes before the sun was due to set.

I tried some shots across the road from the hotel of the waves breaking against the sun, but the light was still too bright. I decided to head further down the road and check out a rock where I had earlier seen a lot of cormorants. I had a vision of the shot I was after with a cormorant silhouetted against the sun setting on the horizon. There was plenty of time to get the shot as the sun was not due to set for another 15 minutes. I took my time trying to get a decent position and then to my horror I noticed the sun was disappearing behind clouds on the horizon. I ended up having to rush off a few shots before the light was gone.

Back home I reviewed the shots I had taken and settled on this one as it almost looks like the cormorants are watching the sunset!

Now I have found a good excuse to head to the west coast of an evening, I think we will be back for both the sunsets and the food!