Flotsam

There are some sections of local beach which, through the vagaries of wind and tide and current, seem to collect more than their fair share of flotsam, including....

....the floating remains of some of the local sea creatures. So, on this short stretch of shingle just to the south of Dunrobin Castle, there is the well-rotted corpse of the minke whale with was stranded in May along with a couple of new arrivals....

....a recently-arrived seal pup, which has already attracted the attention of the carrion crows, and....

....a gull, which we hope didn't die of avian flu, and....

....various vertebra and ribs from the basking shark which came ashore last October which are working their way southwards with the longshore drift.

In some ways I don't mind this rather gruesome collection of remains as it does mean that there is life out there in the Moray Firth. However, there is definitely less life: we've not seen a ray washed ashore in ages, and even crabs, whose clean-picked carapaces and legs used to be scattered all along the tideline, are much scarcer. I worry about the reasons for this apparent decline in wildlife but accept that my observations are random and unscientific and, therefore, of little weight.