It was making frantic efforts to clean its wings with its bill. It had obviously picked up oil, possibly discharged from the naval traffic to and from Rosyth.
Each little wave washed it further in shore until it landed on the sand. On land its actions were ludicrously clumsy and contrasted sharply with the normal speed and power of the Auk on the wing. Its attempts to walk on the sand almost overbalanced it.
Then another wave washed it out to sea again.
It was at this point that some boys armed with stones arrived on the scene and began taking shots at trying to hit it. The bird managed to keep out of their way by paddling hard against the waves. The boys soon tired and moved on.
Perhaps by way of divine retribution, that night the combination of a high tide and a strong north easterly wind caused some damage to Portobello Promenade, portions of which were broken away at two points. The waves were washing right up against the garden walls along the front and in the morning the wholke Promenade was littered from end to end with seaweed, pieces of wood, stones and hundreds of pieces of orange peel.Statistics: Posted by rathbone — 06 Jan 2007, 12:06
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