- cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo. To beat (the) scarfs is to flap the arms against the sides to keep oneself warm on a cold day, like a cormorant flapping its wings.
Shetland is a wonderful place for seabirds. John Brand's observation in The Description of the Countrey of Zetland (1701) should have the twitchers heading north:
The Fowls have their Nests on the Holms in a very beautiful order... as the Scarfs by themselves, so the Cetywaicks [kittiwakes], Tominories [puffins], Mawes [gulls], etc.