Northern Isles Day 13

Day 13

Midnight magic on Mousa! Last night at 10.30pm we got a packed open boat with about 50 others to cross to Mousa. The sea was calm, the sky cloudy and there was a mizzle (or should it be smir?). Some people had cameras with enormous telephoto lenses and others had, like me, only their phones. Before boarding we washed out boots in disinfectant. (Avian flu). The crossing took only about 15 minutes. The people who had come with guides left to walk to the broch first. The rest of us walked the kilometre or so to the broch with Rodney, the boatman, who kept us entertained with stories of smuggling, the history of the island and, of course, the bird life.

Our reason for being here was to experience the storm petrels returning to the broch in the safety of the dim to relieve their partners of nesting duties. About 40% of the world’s population of these birds nest on Mousa. They are birds about sparrow size, very swift and quiet in flight. They go to the Southern Hemisphere for our winter, returning to mate in the spring. They mate for life - they live about 30 years - and produce only one egg a year. The parent birds take turns to incubate the egg, going out to sea to feed and returning under cover of the semi-darkness around midnight to relieve their partner which then takes its turn to go in search of food. They don’t build nests - the just find a place under stone on the beach or in the structure of the 2000 year old broch, one of the best preserved in the country. As we stood around the broch gradually we saw more and more birds flitting back, some of which flew very close to us before finding their way into their own particular crevice. Obviously it’s impossible to take a photo in such dim light when they are moving so quickly, but if you look carefully at the photo on the left of the collage you’ll see a few blurred shapes by the broch, taken just after midnight. It was magic really as we were aware of hundreds of birds flying back. The other pictures are the boat at 10.30 and the view of the broch from the walk there. Some people had gone up inside and went out on top. We stayed till 12.15 before walking back to the boat. I’d taken a head torch though they were available to borrow if anyone wanted.

We stayed parked up at the ferry and were into bed by 1.30.

It was only 7 miles drive down to St Ninian’s tombolo which we can hardly see for mist. We’ll take a short walk on it as my foot is unfortunately very painful. I’ll be using my spiky ball when I get home but at the moment I’m doing the exercises the physio gave me.

I think the reason I’m out of data is that I was using my ordnance survey maps all the time to route-find on the Dales Way, which was during this month’s allowance, and here too, as I’ve never run out before. I have 10G and close stuff down after using it. When I get home I can check on the BT data which should show where it has all gone. Also we’ve been wild camping so had no wifi access for 2 weeks. I have only use Blip, Facebook and WhatsApp, apart from googling stuff and the maps.

I’ve finished my books so Mr C has loaned me one of his by Andrey Kurkov, renowned by the world’s media as a respected commentator on Ukraine.