Grey skies, a low tide, and a beach empty of humans and dogs welcomed me for a late afternoon walk to the south of the town....
....the tide low enough to expose some of the ancient peat beds that underlie the beach.
There was unusually little in the way of bird life along the beach - a passing walker informed me that most of the waders would have moved along to the mud flats exposed around Loch Fleet - but a dozen or so red-breasted mergansers were working hard offshore for a meal....
....the success of one of them bringing the unwelcome attentions of a black-backed gull which....
....chased the merganser around until....
....when the first gull was joined by another, the merganser dived....
....coming up a few moments later with an empty beak: either it had managed to swallow its prey or the fish had escaped.
No comments:
Post a Comment