Swift

Before today I had only seen about four swifts in Orkney- and one of them was an Alpine swift. Today I got about 175. A local birdwatcher recorded over 600 yesterday but I was there today as a volunteer with the RSPB helping remove an old barbed-wire fence. It was strange seeing the birds drop from the heights then skim low over the cliff and fields at about head-height. These are high-altitude birds- very unusual to see them go past so low . It was very difficult to photograph them. They were slowed down by fighting strong southerly winds but still bouncing about. Another migrant was a pied flycatcher at the Kitchener Memorial