An Empty Shore

So many times, in the years we have lived in the Scottish highlands, we have driven the car for just a few miles from home, parked it by the side of the (usually single track) road, and walked off into the wilderness. On so many of those occasions we have wandered for miles and perhaps not seen a soul, though we have often....

.....encountered some majestic wildlife.

We set out to do the same today, parking a few miles out of the village and taking a lonely walk along a....

....long beach with not....

....another person to be seen. The difference today was that, with the exception of what might have been a small flock of sanderlings, we saw hardly any wildlife in what is designated one of Scotland's National Nature Reserves: a dozen oystercatchers, a curlew, a redshank, a few crows and gulls, and a seal.

We sat for some time looking out across a wonderfully still sea and discussed the apparent loss of our wildlife. One example we talked about was the guillemot. We used to see these divers fairly frequently off this shore, often in pairs. They had a grim time in the bird flu epidemic and they've not recovered, for we haven't seen one in a year or so.