Saturday 13 April 2019

Decks, ducks and a decade

It's been a funny old week, three different installations, interspersed with a morning volunteering for wildlife and also a chores-y/admin-y day.

Tuesday morning dawned brightly, the light picking out some of the shipping in Scapa Flow. It was a particularly busy day, with ship-to-ship transfers and ocean-going tugs preparing to accompany an accommodation platform out into the North Sea oilfields.

Maersk Laser and Siem Pearl

As above, plus the tankers Nansen Spirit, Scott Spirit and Caspian Sea

On Wednesday evening, the platform was ready to set off on its journey, after a Winter-long stay in the Flow.


Maersk Laser with a line to the Safe Caledonia platform, plus the pilot launch John Rae

On Thursday evening, the light was gorgeous, so I pootled down to the old kirk by the shore, to see what was about in the pools and fields.


A male Teal busy feeding

Three Gadwall... there's gonna be trouble

One of the males makes a show of strength to scare off the intruder (whilst his potential mate is more interested in feeding)

She wasn't as impressed as he had hoped she would be.

My first Wheatear of 2019, one of three seen in a ploughed field just near the shore
Today marks the tenth anniversary of this blog. For a project which was begun to while away a convalescent period following an operation, it's probably fair to say that it has somewhat exceeded its mission profile.

5 comments:

Rebecca smith said...

Happy anniversary! Congratulations.😁👍🎉

Imperfect and Tense said...

Thank you! I had been pondering whether to mark the occasion a bit more flamboyantly, but that turned out to be a very ephemeral thought. So I just wrote about what happened in the week and sat staring at the words and photos, trying to come up with a suitable title. It kinda worked :o)

Spadger said...

Happy birthday Mr Tense and a wonderful ten it has been to read your blogs.

Imperfect and Tense said...

JD, you should probably get time off for good behaviour! Habitat maintenance, gig buddy, holiday herb cupboard, wildlife adventures and roast deer, to name but a few.

Spadger said...

And the Victor Scale! Still have it and the holiday tea bag illustration pinned to desk.