Falling Tide

It's perfect timing if we arrive at Golspie's south beach just as the falling tide clears the bottom of the access ramp because we then have its....

....pristine sands all to ourselves. We managed it this morning, walking out onto the beach just after ten with low tide due at 12.31 but, once again, we were shocked....

....at how much sand has been removed since we were last here, probably during Thursday's north wind. The erosion has now reached the low dunes at the back of the beach, exposing the roots of the marram grass that holds them. Along this section there is no sea wall and the caravan site is just behind.

For some time we had the whole beach to ourselves, miles of it - always special - until we met a dog walker coming in the opposite direction, a lady we have met and chatted with before.

Mrs MW was just commenting on how the beach was beginning to feel like a winter beach, the sort of beach we walked when we first came to live in Golspie almost a year ago, when we remember usually finding something of interest on each outing.... when we came across this cuckoo ray, the first we've seen in months, washed up and eviscerated by the gulls.

On our return to the ramp at the end of our walk we came across this very friendly wheatear. These smart-looking birds don't winter here and should be well on their way to their Central African wintering grounds so we assume and hope that this individual was a late starter on its passage south.