Dale

Someone forgot to tell the wind that it was supposed to calm down today. Instead, it was barrelling down from the north as boisterous as ever on my walk from Finstown along Redland to Cottascarth and this ruined cottage, which I've photographed before.

It was good, really, that the wind was strong and from the north; it will help the migrants heading south from here, and the others from Iceland and Norway that are wanting to spend winter in Orkney. I sat in the RSPB hide for a while, but there was only a pair of ravens around. I had coffee and swept out the place. I mean that I put a brush to use, not that I left in a huff.

Back home in Kirkwall a bird flew into my window. It was alive and I took it indoors, but it did not live long. It was a lovebird, an escape.