We walked through the pine plantation along the eastern shore of Loch Fleet this morning finding a few winter-battered fungi and a single....
....greater spotted woodpecker which wouldn't allow us close.
In the main basin of the loch the seals were in their usual place lazing on the rapidly-diminishing sand banks but there were few birds on the water, some cormorants and....
....this group of three red-breasted mergansers.
With the new moon the tides are coming up to springs so there's a strong flow of water through the narrow entrance to the sea loch. Seeming to enjoy the currents and the rough water they created were about fifty eider, the males now in their full mating plumage.
On the beach just inside the loch entrance we spotted these waders, four species in all - oystercatchers, redshanks, ringed plovers and sanderling. The picture seems to capture the worrying situation here: there are relatively few birds along the shore at the moment, no large flocks with the exception of the eider, so these mixed flocks may be a way for them to find some mutual protection from predators.
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