Beautiful Birds (2): Great Skua, near the Summer Isles

Viewpoint from the mainland,
north of Ullapool,
to the Summer Isles

David and I had spotted two dark 'storm' birds on our visit to Neist Point on Skye. I had tried to photograph them, but without much success due to their speed and the strength of the wind.

We left Skye and headed north to the Ullapool area, enjoying glorious views of the windswept Summer Isles. Suddenly we noticed a bird almost motionless in flight, and assuming it was an eagle, we picked up our binoculars. It turned out to be the Great Skua that you see above. Those of you who watched Simon King on his BBC Shetland Diaries will know this bird as a Bonxie, a name probably of Norse origin (according to the Foula Heritage site), meaning something along the lines of 'untidy old woman'!

Adam Tilt of My Life Outside took some good photographs of the species on Mull, further down the coast.