"The Birds"

Wednesday 8th December 2010
More parcels to take down to the Hope for posting so I walked down the hill to the car and there were no problems getting to the Hope. On the way back, the road along the South Ronaldsay side of Water Sound was covered in gulls. There were hundreds of them. All that I can think is that because the road was clear of snow and was black, it had warmed up and the gulls were taking advantage of the heat.

Whatever the reason, it was something like Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". They stayed on the road until the car was only 4 or 5 yards from them and then took off and swirled round the car on all sides. For about 400 yards the car was surrounded by birds and I could not see properly. Weird but they did not actually attack me.

Discretion being the better part of valour,I decided not to attempt to get the car home and left it down Burray village and walked home. The electrician tried to get up but fauled and had to get Duncan to tow him up.

There is a great gig on at The Reel in Kirkwall tomorrow night with local duo SaltFish Forty and "Begley, Edey and Henderson" (an Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman) who are supposed to be very good.
If there is no more snow overnight, I will book some tickets, assuming they have some left.