We walked the Littleferry end of Golspie's south beach on Saturday under a strong onshore breeze and occasional brisk showers. The recent easterlies have caused the sea to remove much of the sand, piling it in long banks offshore, visible where the surf breaks across them.
This sad corpse of a pink-footed goose had just been washed up, the evidence for the 'just' being that the carrion crows hadn't yet had a go at it. The poor beast must have landed, perhaps exhausted, out to sea and then died before or as it was washed ashore.
There must be many long-distance migrators, such as these swans, which are reaching the point of exhaustion after a tough winter and faced now with a long migration north. We saw this small flock of swans at Gordonbush the other day.
Our small garden birds are also having a hard time. It's bad enough that the sparrowhawk is a frequent visitor to the garden but we also have a spaniel staying with us. He has kindly brought two servants with him so he's very little bother but his favourite pastime, other than chewing up the lawn, is chasing our small birds.
The bird at top left may also be a sparrowhawk which has left its normal low-level hunting environment to chase away a buzzard. It spent some five minutes harassing it before the buzzard decided it had had enough and flew off.
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