We haven't walked the coast path north, to the gate beyond Dunrobin Castle, for months so it was good today to revisit familiar territory and to find the usual variety of interest including....
....a dead gannet, worryingly reminiscent of the days of the avian 'flu outbreak - but, happily, this was the only casualty washed up along recent hight tide lines.
At times the beaches exposed at low tides seem to host more birds that belong in fields and woodland than birds that belong on the shore. We saw curlews and oystercatchers, cormorants, grey herons and gulls but the most interesting sight was the first rock dove of the year, feeding with a small flock of rooks; we wondered whether the pigeons would appear in the large numbers seen last winter.
It wasn't only busy along the shore: several of these fox moth caterpillars were taking advantage of the short grass along the path to hurry to.... well, wherever they felt they needed to be on a cold September morning.
The short grass also seems to have encouraged this leggy fungus, perhaps one of the brittlestems.
It's sad that such an enjoyable walk starts at the opposite end of the village to our new house, which means we now have to drive to access it.
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