Littleferry

We drove to Littleferry this morning for the first time in several weeks, timing our arrival for low tide and finding the water pouring out of Loch Fleet so fast that....

....this lone goldeneye couldn't make any progress against the current.

The goldeneye was one of the few ducks and wading birds around the entrance to the loch; a small number of widgeon were swimming just offshore and the tideline was being worked by gulls, oystercatchers and redshanks but, for the time of year, we were surprised at how few wildfowl were around.  Perhaps they've been driven further south by the recent cold weather.

We took full advantage of the miles of open sands and an almost total absence of other humans to stretch our legs and, as my mother would put it, "blow away the cobwebs", finding little of interest except....

....a serpent brittle star left stranded by the falling tide - we popped him back into the water where he quickly recovered.

As we walked back to the car a buzzard wheeled above us, its plaintive cry loud above another bird call - a skylark has either overwintered here or has made an exceptionally early return.

We stopped by Loch Fleet on our drive home in the hope of seeing more in the way of birds but the mudflats were strangely devoid of large numbers, although a few....

....curlews, redshanks, shelduck and widgeon were feeding out on the mud - but, again, in disappointingly small numbers.