Along the Beach

I start every walk with the hope that we'll encounter at least one thing which is exciting, interesting, beautiful.... but our walks along the beach towards Dunrobin are, at present, rather marred at their start as we have to pass the very odiferous corpse of a fully-grown seal cooking in the sunshine followed by that of....

....a guillemot, this being particularly sad as we've been noticing a small flock of them offshore, the first for some time, but which may now have bird flu.

Recent rough weather has deposited mounds of weed along the high-tide mark, exploited by some slightly unexpected birds like this year's starlings as well as young pied wagtails and the usual selection of crows, gulls and waders.

At the far end of this walk is an open space which, each year until this one, has always had a resident group of ringlet butterflies. I think it's a bit late from them now but, while searching, I noticed....

....that one of the castle's notice boards had another use....

....as a basking spot for a very smart peacock butterfly, the first I've seen in some time.

Birds are an excellent early-warning system and this morning's commotion in the sea buckthorn at the back of the beach drew my attention to the top of the log to the left of this picture where....

....a sparrowhawk was looking for a late breakfast. He was so intent on this that I was able to creep to within ten metres of him at which point....

....he gave me a look which clearly said, "Back off!" - which, very gratefully, I did.