A roller-coaster of a day…

A night of storms and cyclonic winds left Bessie shaken but not stirred so to speak.  As usual, it seems, the skies cleared during the morning and Peter went down to the beach to see what was happening.  The usual Turnstones and Ringed Plovers plied their trade in amongst the seaweed and a Wagtail hopped playfully on the rocks.

Driving down the west coast, the Atlantic waves were thundering in (featured image) and we wondered whether the little Flybe plane would be making its daily trip today.  We thought we would try the airport café today and got there in plenty of time for the arrival.  We managed to get a good table near the window and tucked into sandwiches and a bacon roll.

It seemed that their wifi was free so Peter fetched the two laptops.  There was a hitch with logging in but a phone call to their help line meant we eventually managed it.  I started to upload another blog but ran into trouble with the photographs.  My photo programme refused to open and I had to restart the Macbook – several times.  In the end I had to give up.  Peter managed to download some more podcasts on the small laptop – we’ve got fed up listening to the old ones time and time again!

So, no luck with the blogs but we were in an excellent position to see the plane come in.  There is something magical about it and we never tire of seeing it skimming over the sand.

The incoming passengers poured into the café (also the arrival hall) and those who had been sitting at tables grabbed their luggage and made their way out to the waiting plane.  The tiny Twin Otter aircraft’s wings bounced up and down in the high winds still prevailing.  In no time at all it was take-off time and, after taxi-ing down the beach, it turned around and was soon aloft above our heads.

The café started closing down as we and the last of the passengers left – until tomorrow at roughly the same time, depending on the tide of course.

We drove on down to Castlebay as we needed some shopping in the Co-Op and thought that we could perhaps get the little boat over the bay to Kisimul Castle.

Unfortunately, though, there was a notice on the jetty to the effect that it was closed due to the weather conditions.  The sea looked choppy even in the harbour so perhaps it was just as well.

We decided to take the road around the eastern coast back to the campsite and, despite the windy weather, the sun had come out again and the countryside looked wonderful as usual.

Everywhere along the roads on Barra you see sheep, black sheep, white sheep, spotty sheep and, in this instance, brown sheep.  Ewe and lambs doing what comes naturally.

And a white sheep relaxing amongst the gorse:

We are getting to know the places to look for birds.  There is a house with a rocky wild garden where there is usually a Whimbrel or two grazing on the grass.  Today was no exception.

Then there is the field which is favoured by Lapwings:

We have made a habit of making a brief detour to the old jetty on the way home and today’s visit brought forth another bird new to us – a Twite.  This sweet little chap found himself lifted clean off his tiny feet by the ferocious wind!

An Oystercatcher and Redshank wandered around the rocks while a Little Tern wheels away overhead:

On returning to our campsite, we see that the field opposite has been turned over and is covered in gulls, rooting around in the disturbed earth.

There followed many hours of toiling over the laptop trying to re-import and sort out our photographs into a new programme.  It was a late night and the storm was still raging…