Silhouettes

As we stepped out of the door for our morning walk geese were passing overhead, heading north, and as we walked....

....more and more skeins crossed the sky, the sound of their calls suggesting they were pink-footed geese, flocks which return here every year in their thousands for the early part of the winter. They seem to like the fields to the north of us for foraging, returning each evening to roosts south of Loch Fleet.

With the constant calling of geese above us we walked north along the coast. It was just after low tide with not a breath of wind and a layer of clouds above us with open sky away to the southeast across the Dornoch Firth.

We were hoping to see an otter as a rising tide and calm conditions are ideal for this rather forlorn pursuit, the edge of the water being busy instead with....

....a variety of birds - several grey herons, mallard, cormorants, a few oystercatchers, curlews and redshanks, and well over a hundred rock doves.

The layer of cloud did finally clear, the sun warm enough to tempt out another red admiral - one which had very slim pickings on the dying wildflowers when compared to the feast available in our garden.