At last I have got my computer back, all cleaned up and ready to go.
Right, let's continue the action.
Now we were at Skerray for the first time. The harbour is basically a small bay with a harbour wall built across the mouth of the harbour allowing a small opening to the sea. We stood up onto the wall and were hit with a fierce wind. In the harbour all was quiet and relatively calm. On the other side of the wall the sea was raging. We didn’t know what boat we were using but to be honest all the boats in the harbour looked too small for the two mile crossing to the island. It wasn’t long before we were joined by a middle aged woman enquiring whether we were the party she was taking over to the island. Looking out over to the sea again I remember saying that I thought it too rough for a crossing but upon pointing down to the minute boat below us she informed us that she had crossed in worse weather than this and we weren’t to worry.
The crossing for me was exhilarating, but not for my other two friends who were being rather ill in the front of the boat. As we pulled out of the mouth of the harbour the wind hit us full on but the skipper knew just how to steer the boat into it and soon we were out into open water, rocking and rolling with the white water waves, with Black Guillemot, Fulmar, Bonxies (Great Skua), Manx Sheawater, Gannet, Shag, Guillemot, Razorbill, Puffin, Eider, the odd Sandwich Tern as well as the common gull species accompanying us across to the island.
The skipper had previously loaded up quite a few large containers of water for everyone on the island to use as there was no water on the island. To get on the island we had to jump from the boat onto a flat concreted area. It was a bit dicey timing the jump just right but we did it. The next tricky bit was transferring the gear and water off the boat whilst it was continually rolling in the waves but we did it without incident. Thankfully the rest of the group had come down from the campsite to welcome us and carry the water up the 50 or so steep steps we had to climb up.
Soon were on the camp site which was situated amongst the ruins of the long departed houses that had been left to the elements since about 1931. Here is a link to a brief overview of the area.
http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.u...ine/index.html
The tents were soon erected and we all settled down to a meal that had been prepared by the other camp members. Some of the camp members had been ringing throughout the night and had been excited by the results. We were straining at the bit to take part but first of all it was necessary to get our heads down for a few hours in readiness for our all night ringing.
Whilst we had been eating our food we had been treated to Great Skuas flying over us, Twite, Meadow Pipit, Hooded Crow & Wheatear all around us. The odd Rock Pipit and true Rock Doves also made appearances whilst a few Swallows swooped in and around the ruins with lone appearances of Whinchat & Skylark to add to the species list.
After a few hours kip we made our way to the north headland which was about a mile away. We set up a series of mist nets on top of the cliff to cover about 200 foot in length, checked to see that all the equipment was in place and sat down to have a meal, a brew and some light hearted banter.
We were waiting for dusk to arrive as it was then we switched on the tape deck and started the calls of the Stormies.
I have attached 3 photos.
No 1 is the little boat we went over to the island on.
No. 2 is part of the campsite. By the end of the day there were more arrivals and there wasn't a space left.
No. 3 is a distant look at the old ruined village. Note there are no trees to be seen. In fact there are no trees on the entire island.
John