Thurso to Duncansby Head

What's not to love about a fulmar chick??? Reminds me a bit of a dodo actually. The St Kildan's used to eat these in their thousands every year and put their oil to use in a variety of ways. Fulmars are such an integral part of any seabird colony these days that it would be easy to assume that they have been around forever, but actually up until 1878 St Kilda was the only known breeding site for fulmars in the UK.

Not much to report today, I spent 90 minutes on a boat sailing around the island of Stroma and then Duncansby Head where the cliffs are now largely devoid of seabirds. Plenty of gannets over the sea and a few great skuas and black guillemots, but not much else. Then it was on to Scrabster where the highlight was a good look at the great yellow bumblebees on the ferry road, before walking a few miles around Holborn Head scanning the sea all of the time. Finally this evening I spent time near Old Wick Castle again scanning over the sea, but not a cetacean to be seen anywhere all day.

Great skua.

Scottish Lovage Ligusticum scoticum grows all around the cliffs.