Well we are still here, despite a force 10 gale with 90 mph gusts recorded just north of here at the Tay Road Bridge. The wind is still blowing hard here, probably a force 7 and normally this would mean high excitement but not when it comes that day after what we had yesterday. And yet the material damage is not too bad. The tern hide was blown over and battered despite having huge weights on each corner, a few signs have blown off, the builders TV aerial has disappeared off the cottages in Fluke Street (good except that I was hoping to watch Man. Utd win the Champions league final on Saturday) and my potatoes and peas in the garden are completely blackened and withered.
Even the poor birds haven't done as bad as we thought last night. The researchers have been out today assessing what has happened on the cliffs. There were a few carcasses on Pilgrims Haven this morning amongst the washed up creels, some of the lower cliff ledges have had guillemot eggs washed off, a number of the most exposed shag nests on the west side have disappeared and a number of kittiwake nests have been blown away. Several lie on the ground near to the Cornerstone cliff face looking like discarded toupees. One even landed on a guillemot sitting on its egg and amazingly the bird was still under the nest this morning. These birds are amazingly resilient and stoic as many will have had the equivalent of buckets of cold water thrown over them for 6-8 hours and yet the instinct to incubate the eggs kept them on their ledges and nests. You can't help but admire these sea birds, they are something special.
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