Orkneys June/July 2018
Bliss
Mon 27 Aug 2018 07:51
We've cycled around a lot of the mainland, taking our fold-up bikes on buses to reduce distances. Cycling into a permanent head wind is hard work. We've had a guided tour of Orkney's second largest island "Hoy" (means high,of course it does if you come from Suffolk), and were privileged to see the pair of White-tailed Eagles, who have produced a chick, the first for 140 years on the island, good luck to them. The farmers are pleased because the eagles are choosing geese, which they take in the air, as apposed to lambs, as their main food. Gives you an idea of their enormous size, with an eight foot wingspan, they are huge and utterly awesome. The adult we were watching seemed to have its eye on a tasty morsel in the form of either a merlin, or hen harrier chick, the parent, about a third the size of the eagle was doing it's level best to see off the eagle, which it eventually seemed to succeed in doing.
Prior to the sea eagle sighting, we climbed up to see the Old Man of Hoy, a rock column just off the mainland, so close that once someone walked across to it on a tight-rope!
Below the eagles nest, eyrie, is a stone, Dwarfies Stane, a block of sandstone carved out to form two cells, thought to be a burial chamber dating back to about 3,000 BC, originally the entrance was blocked with a rock that lies nearby. The chamber has extraordinary acoustics, as discovered by Owen.
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