Navigating in Bird
What's that? Where? Over there
attracts a withering look from our guide
and a plea to make use of the clock.
Midday is ahead, add distance, a height
and then when you spot a small dot
on a pine in Tomvaich or Brodgar,
wonder if that's an eider on the water,
when the Skua moves as your bins focus in
or a Puffin breaks the boil of summer sea
you call two o'clock, low, fifty, flying
right,
four
o'clock, five o'clock, going and gone o'clock.
On Orkney
Leaving the shore at Yesnaby
we cross the peat soft meadow
to look for Primula Scotica.
Under our feet, stars of spring squill,
ruby thyme, golden vetch
hug the ground, and our quest
nests between these common plants,
it's saucers of bright leaves the setting
for rings of fairy amethyst.
On the horizon
the feeding frenzy rises
a triangle of fin
Against the tide
a seal in grey water
head up, swimming
On the ledge above
the guillemots, three puffins
shuffle shuffle in the nest
