Dunnottar Castle is just a couple of miles down the road from Stonehaven, and it was a lovely evening, so I decided to try my luck with a seawatch. I was pleased to find a great skua sitting on the sea, and about 20 gannets passed by, but nothing else except kittiwakes and fulmars around the cliffs. It was a similar story at Blackdog earlier in the week, very little on the sea (except of course scoter and eider at Blackdog!). This has been a surprise to me. With huge gannet colonies to the north in Shetland and much closer at Peterhead, and to the south at the Bass Rock, I expected to see hundreds of gannets at sea. Still, it was a nice to visit such a spectacular location.
Dunnottar Castle.
I found a lovely patch of devil's-bit scabious growing on the cliff opposite the castle. The castle may look close in these next photos, but in reality there's a bay and two 100ft cliffs in between!
The scabious attracted a lot of insects, including lots of small tortoiseshells.....
.....and this painted lady, one of the few I've seen this year so far.
Dunnottar
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