I have been down to see the beautiful Long Tailed Skua several times since its arrival back at the end of May
I have only missed out once but a few days ago i got some great views over 1.5 hours. It did disappear a few times for around 15 mins but came back to the original spot
As always it was very vocal and you could hear it before it came into view. It approached very low several times before attacking a juvenile Arctic Skua
Although the young skua was able to fly it tended to crouch down close to one Adult bird. The Long Tailed made low level attacks flying round several times before coming into rest.
It always had a favourite perch and would fly off and stand a while, it didn't mind a reasonable close approach and these are taken with a 600mm Sigma lens, some cropped a little
I knew where a few other breeding birds were located so didn't go tramping across the moors instead spent a lot of the time in one place waiting
Its a very fast bird and easily out manoeuvred the adult Arctic Skua attacks
It would often stand close to the two adult and Juvenile Arctic's much to their annoyance, all the adults calling
Its been great to see this bird , i have taken about 2500 photos all together, its so photogenic . I have thinned down this number slightly
The last sighting of the bird appears to be on Monday 3 August, it may be still there as most people have been down to see it more than once. On my last visit i was the only one there. People visited before and after me didn't see the bird despite long stays so i was lucky.
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