I have news from the Noup Head Loop walk on Westray which took place on Sunday 12th June. While most of Orkney was nice and dry, the rain fell on Westray though it was only quite light and at least there was no wind. Nevertheless it was enough to wet us so it was lucky everyone came prepared - one of our visiting holidaymakers even brought his brolly and put it to good use - I think that might be a first for the Westray Walk! The rain stopped eventually and it was a lovely evening for the sail back to Kirkwall. There were ten of us, made up of Local Group members, joined by visitors from Huddersfield, Bristol and London. Our guide for the day was Chris Bell, Papay Warden, and what an interesting day he gave us, He knows the area very well so he was able to keep us on the right track, stop us falling off the cliffs and pointing out the flora and fauna, giving us all the details we could wish for about the birds. I was supposed to keep a list of all the birds seen but must confess that this fell by the wayside and it's too near my holiday now for me to sit down an remember them all - I do know that the last bird of the day was a peacock! We saw all the anticipated seabirds including guillemot, tystie, kittiwake, shag, fulmar, puffin and - of course - the mighty gannets were giving a fine flying and diving display. Wheatears were also seen. Another bird of note, bobbing alongside the Mallards on the loch near the Noup, was a Little Grebe.Our walk began at Backarass and went up the coastline to Noup Head then down to Noup Farm to be picked up by our minibus and taken to Pierowall for tea before going back to the ferry. It was a super day made all the better with our local group members and visiting holidaymakers all getting on so well as the chatter at our table in the Pierowall testified. This shortened version of our usual Westray Walk proved very successful meaning we had more time to relax and look at the wildlife. Many thanks to Chris Bell for leading us; his knowledge and his humour made it a great day.
Pauline Wilson (local group secretary)