Gannet, Skuas and Terns

We venture north this weekend, first to look at the devastation that the diggers are causing as they develop the Viking Wind Farm. I counted 9 diggers on the go but others will be out of sight further up the hill, its a sad time.

We stopped along the north coast to look for otters but no luck this time even though the tides were right. Plenty of other action with Gannets and Skuas about

Gannets are superb at fishing and its great to see them crashing into the sea like a bomb. They take on so many different shapes 

I love to see Arctic Skuas and Arctic Terns in battle. One pair of Skuas worked a bay, both sitting on rocks looking for the terns to catch a fish

Once a fish was caught the Skua moved fast to intercept the terns and the battle commenced. It was over a done with in about 20 seconds with the Skuas always coming out on top

Good job there are lots of fish about so some terns will get back to their young. 

Elsewhere, the Long Tailed Skua is still at Dalsetter, Grasshopper Warbler at Bakkasetter but little else on the bird front although autumn migration starts soon.

Lots of White Sided Dolphins about with pods of 50 in a few places and one of around 200 in the north. Minkie, Killer whales and  porpoises have also been seen