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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.
BIRD WATCHING GROUP - OCTOBER
by Ken O'Connor - 00:08 on 16 October 2014
Twelve members of the U3A Birdie Group had a very enjoyable morning walk along the north side of Scapa Flow from the BU in Orphir to Breck and beyond towards Swanbister. The sun was warm on our faces, no wind to have to battle with so it was very pleasant to be able to stand and watch all the usual species of ducks, grebes and northern divers on the water feeding. The views were even better as Tim had his scope with him so we really saw the details of the different colours and plumage, differentiating between the male and female of the species.
The walk culminated with a visit to the wood at Gyre where it was surprisingly quiet, but once back to the Heritage Centre there was a sighting of a black cap and redwing along with robins so all in all a really good morning out even though it could not compete with last months incredible tally of birds on our Sanday outing.
Thank you all for being able to attend and the next walk will be on Wednesday, 19th November. Tim will be deciding exactly where and what we will do, possibly Dingieshowe and Newark if the weather is good. Plan B would be for Tim to show his photos of Australian birds at Coubister with a bowl of soup to follow and a talk about what and where we all would like to go during 2015. Thinking caps on please.
Many thanks
Ken
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