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Walking Group One 25th April 2024
Five hardy souls collected today at Happy Valley for the first Hill Walk of the year .The temperature was cool with a North Easterly wind blowing and a hint of rain on arrival.
Off we set heading towards Russadale Quarry, spotting a Buzzard on the way.Turning into the footpath we remained sheltered from the wind all the way to the top of the hill.
The sun was out at the Quarry and a Greenshank was feeding at the edge of the Lochan. Then it was up the Peat road to the summit with spectacular views across Stenness and Harray Lochs, plus a view of the Closed Road beyond the Watch Stone. On the other side we looked over the Flow and down towards the Oil Platform and South Ronaldsay
Then it was back down after a stop for a snack and finally a walk around Happy Valley itself. The Daffodils planted by James and others were looking lovely and the Bluebells are days away from opening. Then it was on to a well deserved lunch at the Pier Cafe, having walked 4 miles and gone up 800 feet (and down again )
The next walk will be on Friday 24th May and hopefully more hills and views.
Keep moving.
U3A Birdie Group - April 2019
by Sally Hallam - 13:54 on 23 April 2019
About eight members of the Bird Group met at Kirkwall Bus Station on April 17th to catch the 09:25 bus to Houton. After a very short journey, the group exited the bus at the Foveran to walk back along the coast to Scapa and then on to Kirkwall.
The path passed the restaurant and carried on down to join the coastal path towards Scapa. The sun had disappeared and a fairly stiff cool breeze was blowing so the group was glad of their many layers of clothing. On the plus side the path was dry which made travelling along the narrow cliff path much easier. An interesting bay with an old stone pier had potential for a photo but the sun was still hiding away.
Nineteen bird species were seen going along the footpath including a rock pipit and two groups of oystercatchers totalling fifty birds. The sun finally appeared as the group approached Scapa Beach. Rooks, black-headed gulls and eiders were seen on arriving at Scapa, giving a total of 22 species.
After a short rest at the picnic area, the group split into two as some people had follow-on engagements and needed to make their way immediately to Kirkwall along the Crantit Trail. The small ‘splinter” group of Tim and Sally made their way to the pier.
Red Campion in flower was seen on the grassy slopes which seemed a little early. Eight more bird species were added to the list, including swallows (the first seen this year by the splinter group) and about twenty turnstones took off calling loudly. They had been largely hidden against the brown seaweed except for a small show of white plumage. Then a pied wagtail was seen on the sea wall. Back along the Crantit Trail, only a moorhen was seen in the strangely quiet pool. Two jackdaws were added to the list near to the end of the Trail, which gave a total of 30 species at that point. A quick view of the Peedie Sea from the car park opposite Tesco, added mute swans and tufted duck. This made a grand total of 32 bird species seen by the splinter group.
Many thanks to Liz for suggesting this enjoyable and productive walk. Many thanks to Tim for providing the lovely photos.
(For those interested the full list of bird species seen were: pied wagtail, wood pigeon, starling, hooded crow, meadow pipit, blackbird, pheasant, mallard, fulmar, redshank, oystercatcher, rock dove, shag, cormorant, shelduck, skylark, rock pipit, curlew, common gull, rook, black-headed gull, eider, wren, swallow, turnstone, herring gull, long-tailed duck, greylag goose, moorhen, jackdaw, mute swan, tufted duck)
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