Walking the donkeys, a party at the lighthouse and some more

22 April

I start the day with yoga. It is quite a mild day, and it soon gets very sunny and warm. It’s nice to get back to the bird centre, I have missed it!

We see dolphins again.

The guillemots have all left the stacks (the basalt cliffs), and the kittiwakes are back in full force. Also quite a few puffins popping in and out of their burrows. Apart form the regular buses, there is also a party that have booked a bus trip up to see the birds, and quite a few groups of walkers and cyclists. All the visitors keep us very busy throughout the day!

The skuas are on the hill and we get a good view of them through the telescope I get out at platform outside the centre. 

In the evening we get back to the lighthouse with Alison and Liam, and have a nice party. Everyone has cooked a dish, and Liam and Alison bring in beer and wine from the pub. It’s a very enjoyable evening with lots of lighthouse and island stories told by Liam.

Towards sunset we descend the stairs and get into the actual lantern! We get to see up close how it is built, as we stand on a platform running all the way round along the red perspex windows. When the sun has disappeared , the light comes on, a miraculous moment. Liam tells more stories, and we take pictures of the lantern and its inner workings, and each other’s reflections in the windows.

When we get outside it is very dark with a clear sky, stars standing out very clearly. I can make out all of the stars making up Leo (at home usually only about four), and many more constellations.

23 April

A sunny but very cold and windy morning. I run the Kinramer South trail again.

In the afternoon, sea mist arises and it becomes cold and drab. Plenty puffins all day, popping in and out of their burrows. Many razorbills and guillemots at sea. The ravens on the nests are gettiung quite big, and they sit on the edge of the nest and flap their wings. They will probably fledge within a week.

Razorbills' and guillemots' heads

The remains of a puffin that was eaten by ravens and/or black-backed gulls

In the evening, Rick and Hazel come over to show us photos of birds in Australia, New Zealand and Kamchatka, where they have been studying and ringing waders.

24 April

Stormy, still very sunny, a brilliant day. We can hardly get out onto the viewing platform. Binoculars can hardly be held still. Wendy meanwhile leaves for the mainland on one of the very few ferries that will cross today. It has been a wonderful time with her, and we feel we were like a little family of choice at the cottage.

As there are no visitors coming up, Rick suggests we clean the lighthouse stairs, kitchen, reading room and the engine room. So we get brooms, mops and cloths and get started.

In the afternoon, two women from Germany walk to the centre, they manage to see one or two puffins, and the kittiwakes and fulmars. The fulmars have a very enjoyable time riding the wind.

Some scientists come up with Liam to set up a camera in the kittiwake colony. In the afternoon, Lesley arrives at the centre.

The win blows the waterfall up! (centre left)

When we get home, I prepare peppers à la Kasparov for the whole lot of us. As they cook in the oven, I do a bit of kata practice outside, and after that a bit of sparring with Matt, changing Muay Thai and karate combinations. Quite enjoyable and interesting. The knees from the side are quite challenging!

We have dinner, starting with the soup left for us by Wendy, and then the peppers.

After that, Lesley, Penny and myself watch the Great Budapest Hotel, an outrageously ridiculous movie starring Ralph Fiennes.

Matt comes in and tells us it snows! He has made a little video outside of the snow storm, which he enjoyed being in a lot.