Sanderling takes flight

What a glorious day we've had - and it's not over yet.

I was awake at first light and could tell straight away that there was going to be a good sunrise. About 06:10 the sun rose above Papay (Papa Westray) and the sky turned pink, red and orange. Worth getting up for. Since then the sun has shone on a turquoise shading to navy blue sea.

We made a picnic and headed to the south west of the island. The walk from Bay of Tuquoy to Mae Sands is one we've done before. It goes past the ruined Westside Church which I'm sorry to say is surrounded by heras fencing at the moment and goodness knows for how long. The path is really hard to follow in places and terribly overgrown. There are moves afoot to improve the walking paths here and I think that would be a good thing.

Mae Sands is a wonderful curved beach of white sand. There was no-one else there. In fact we saw no-one at all on the walk except the person we stopped to chat to about her croft house restoration. It is very impressive.

There were sanderlings running in and out of the water at Mae Sands. I just snapped this one as it took off. It could be sharper but I'm pleased with how this turned out.

I'm about to set out for another walk, more locally this time. I'm off to Pierowall Fish to order tomorrow evening's fish suppers. And have another mooch on the beach.