Littleferry - Deserted

It isn't often that one comes across deer tracks on the beach but this morning at Littleferry we found some which were even more unusual as they showed that the deer had come straight out of the sea and up the beach.

I'm no expert on deer but the tracks seemed about the right size for the local roe deer - but what would a roe deer be doing having, apparently, swum at the mouth of Loch Fleet?

However, we then came across a second set, a couple of hundred metres on, which, once again, went straight across the beach but this time in to the sea. Perhaps this deer set out to swim across the mouth of Loch Fleet but, on a falling tide, was swept out to sea and just made it back further along the beach.  Certainly, the fast-moving tides through the loch entrance make this is a dangerous place to swim.

If this seems an exceptionally good picture of a male eider it's also a very sad one. It was sitting on the beach when I saw it but, as I approached, it hardly moved in to the water and allowed me to approach within five metres - hence the quality of the photo. It was obviously sick so, even though chickens are now allowed to roam outdoors, bird flu may still be around.

I don't think I've seen the sands at Littleferry so devoid of life: the only waders we saw were the usual oystercatchers and a group of about eight curlews, so we decided to walk back along the links where...

....to cheer us up, the first wild tricolor pansies are just appearing.

We finished our walk at the bench that overlooks the inner basin of Loch Fleet - and this was almost as depressing as Littleferry's deserted sands. As far as we could see, on all these extensive mudflats there were a few crows and gulls, a dozen or so shelduck, a handful of curlews, and about twenty oystercatchers.