Stranded

We're not the only couple who enjoy a lonely walk along Golspie beach on a fine, if not sunny winter's day. We ought to be walking somewhere else for a change but there's too much that draws us back to the beach, not least....

....that each time we walk along it there's something new to see, either in the way of wildlife or what might be called deadlife - what's washed up overnight and stranded on this beach, like this egg mass from the common whelk Buccinum undatum. This is a typical sized mass but....

 ....further along the beach we found two more of the largest I have ever seen.

There are often shells from this species washed up on the beach, usually rather broken, but yesterday we found this one.

Our prize stranding of today was this ray which....

....Mrs MW agreed to approach even though she was understandably wary.

It was a bit battered and frayed round the edges but we think it's a common, or blue, skate, Dipturus batis. This one was big - 1.4m from wingtip to wingtip and 1.9m from nose to tail - but small compared to the record which was 2.85m long.

The species is critically endangered, and its range has reduced considerably. While it used to be found all round the British Isles it is now confined to our Atlantic coast, particularly off northwest Scotland, yet this one was firmly in the North Sea. Perhaps this is an encouraging sign.