It's been a day of two halves Brian

Right, that's a Corncrake, more of which later (because it deserves it).

The day began with a a decision to head up to Huisnis for a coastal walk we both like, looking out over Scarp. The weather gods had been consulted and today was the day things settled down.

The weather gods were wrong.

Well, at least for that bit of the island. Damned micro-climates. Half an hour after leaving the car the rains started coming. And for two hours they didn't stop. All the while there was a neat dividing line, tempting and tormenting us with blue sky about two miles away, onto the far side of Scarp, like a meteorological edition of Bullseye, "Here's what you could have won!" After sheltering behind rocks we slumped back to the car, where fortunately I had some spare clothes in the boot bringing about some brief public nudity, and we made it back 'home' to dry out and marvel at the perfectly dry roads (no rain at all!) and the wonder of the sun.

So the afternoon was taken up heading to Northton where we've heard the elusive Corncrake before. And within ten seconds of leaving the car there was that familiar 'crek crek' in the air. But they're remarkably good at hiding in the long grass and so we headed out along the coast (taking in a brief otter meeting, and a bunch of ravens gathering round a dead porpoise on the beach) before I was once again tempted by the call of not one, but two, of the males. It took some searching, but there he was, and somehow I managed to grab some shots. One of Britain's rarest and most endangered birds. I'd hoped to hear them here, and had dreamed f seeing them, but thought that would never happen.

A wee joy.

And to think I'd been disappointed earlier by a cuckoo being mobbed away as I'd stalked within 20 yards of it without it having a clue I was there; and driving under a Golden Eagle just 40 feet above the car but with nowhere to stop to snap it. This little devil trumps them both.

We even managed, in the late evening sun, a sit out with some gin before dinner. The soaked to the skin morning well into the memory.