Eider Down
![Eider Duck - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Eider-Duck-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-725x483.jpg)
I’m walking in the far north of Westray. I’ve been scrambling up cliffs, walking across rocky beaches and yomping across grassy fields. I’m tired and decide to have a sit down by the side of a shallow pool. Suddenly I notice that I’ve sat down next to an Eider Duck.
Beautiful, aren’t they?
![Eider Duck - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Eider-Duck-The-Hall-of-Einar-3-725x483.jpg)
It waddles slowly off and I realise it’s left its nest. That’s a disaster for me as I hate disturbing wildlife.
![Eider Duck nest - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Eider-Duck-nest-The-Hall-of-Einar-8604-544x725.jpg)
I take a quick phone photo as I pass by and then scuttle off, leaving the female to return, warily, to her eggs.
The nest is extraordinary. Five eggs lie in a hollow of Eider down, plucked from her body. They look so snug there. I look forward to the flopping of little webbed feet down onto the rocky beach.
More Eider Ducks
![Eider Drake - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Eider-Drake-The-Hall-of-Einar--300x200.jpg)
![Eider Duck - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Eider-Duck-The-Hall-of-Einar-10-300x150.jpg)
![Eider Duck - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Eider-Duck-The-Hall-of-Einar-5-300x169.jpg)
![Eider Duck - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Eider-Duck-The-Hall-of-Einar-49-300x200.jpg)
![2022 highlights of a wilder Orkney life (part 1)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2022-1-300x157.jpg)