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These puffins had their feathers ruffled by an unrelenting north-west wind on the cliffs at Dunnet Head at the weekend. But they easily adapted to the very breezy conditions as they flew back and fore between their burrows and the sea far below.

Puffin season is at its peak at this time of year, and although concerns have been raised about population decline there appeared to be healthy numbers of the so-called "clowns of the sea" at the UK mainland's most northerly point when Alan Hendry took this set of pictures on Sunday afternoon. Adult puffins arrive back at their breeding colonies around March or April and leave again by mid-August.

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