Usually when we approach oystercatchers along a beach they, rather reluctantly, take off when we come uncomfortably near, often landing a little further along the beach or behind us, but today at Littleferry, as we approached this small group of six, one of them....
....detached itself from the others and walked purposefully towards us, soon joined by a second, and the two....
....came right up to Mrs MW, one pecking at her boot.
Even when we started to move away they followed, walking so close they threatened to trip us up, so we had to accelerate to leave them behind.
I have no idea what prompted this extraordinary behaviour, though I note that both the birds which came close to us had been ringed and that they were young. Have these birds been reared and released along the beach? What I do hope is that it's not that they are desperately hungry.
There were few other birds along the beach, with the exception of the usual convocations of gulls, another, larger, group of oystercatchers, and a noisy collection of terns, above. I still haven't been able to get close enough to take see what species they are but we didn't have this many along the coast last year.
Inland from the beach the links are desperately dry, some of the plants showing considerable distress. One of the few species which seems to tolerate lack of water is....
....the Scottish bluebell, which is out in numbers in the long grass, though....
....pickings looked pretty thin for this fox moth caterpillar.
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