Not so rosy at Yesnaby

Spectacular scenery and bracing winds at Yesnaby today, a truly memorable and exhilarating experience. However perhaps only my birding friends will understand the pain of getting home to find that an adult rose-coloured starling was found while we were there on one of the headlands visited. Not that I'm too bothered about rose-coloured starling because I've seen lots in recent years, but it would have been nice to add it to my self found list. It could have been worse though... a lot worse.

A fulmar glides effortlessly past.

A puffin gli... err no, a puffin just about makes it past.

This is where the rose-coloured starling was found while we were there. Aaargh!

Arctic skua, pale phase.

Bonxie.

Mountain everlasting is a dioecious plant, in other words it has male and female plants with different flowers. The specimen in the photo above is a male plant. I often think of mountain everlasting as the UK's edelwiess since they look quite similar and both are members of the daisy family.

Female mountain everlasting. It's one of my favourite plants.

Bird's-foot trefoil.

Marsh lousewort.

Sea squill

Masses of sea squill!

Thrift