Dunrobin Beach

The beach below Dunrobin Castle is only a few minutes' walk from our front door and its mixture of sand, pebbles, seaweed and other flotsam makes it, for its short length, a great beach for wildlife, particularly on a sunny morning like today's and with a rising tide pushing the wildlife inshore

This flock of turnstones - nine of them today - were either so tame or so blasé that they seemed unconcerned by my careful approach, so these picture were taken from a few metres away. They seemed far more concerned....

....about catching a bit of gentle shut-eye in the warm sun.

Along with the oystercatchers, gulls and shags, there were two pairs of ringed plovers both of which seemed determined to ignore my advice that this is a rotten place to try to nest as there are so many humans with their dogs. This one....

....was almost comic in his anxiety to preen himself so he was as smart as possible, almost falling over in his efforts. His lady largely ignored him.

I sat for some time on the bench overlooking the beach, soaking up the sun and chatting with the occasional passer-by. At one point a skein of geese flew over, heading determinedly.... south. Perhaps they know about something in the forecast that we don't.