A Desert

The sea lay dead calm along Golspie's south beach this morning, the air chill and the only signs of life as I stepped out onto its sands....

....the pink-footed geese, thousands of them in skein after skein, calling as they flew high across a blurred sun.

I don't think I have ever seen the beach so empty, even though it has been horribly empty before. The only wader seen in an hour and a half's walking was a curlew working the swash of the waves. It shrieked at my approach as it took off and circled to land behind me. The nearest birds offshore were a couple of guillemots in their winter plumage and....

....a few cormorants, beyond which a scattering of eider were just visible at the grey interface of sea and sky.

As I approached the pier on my return two dolphins surfaced far out. I only spotted them because I had the binoculars focused on a cormorant, and they were quickly gone. There must be something out there for them to hunt as a passer by told me she's seen them yesterday.