Ducking and Diving on Muttonbird Hill

We had to keep out of the way, not as you might imagine from the shearwater who are at present canoodling with this year’s mate out at sea, but from the scores of local healthies running up and down the hill, sweaty red necks and dead serious faces. The way into the harbour looks pretty impressive doesn’t it? We can now see why those welcoming blue neon triangles keep one well across to the left on entering. Even the local fishing boat was taking it very carefully. The resident birds at our time were pigeons, oyster catchers with their pretty orange legs, white faced herons gliding overhead like witnesses of pre-history, swallows, terns, gulls, buntings and a peregrine falcon. Not a bad head count for a small island.

Can you spot Zoons? Just left of centre and looking towards the camera. We wandered into the Sunday market after collecting some bags from Zoonie and bought lots of lovely fresh local fruit and veg, then waited on board for the much forecast thunderstorm to arrive, and it did with marble sized hailstones on the deck. Much bigger stones fell inland and warnings were put out to everyone to hide their cars under strong roofs. I remembered the immense storm we had north of Oakham a few years ago when all the parked cars in a street in Asfordby Hill were dented by the merciless stones.