Parenting

Oystercatchers take parenting very seriously. Time and again at this season of year we've seen a mum or dad closely followed by one or two juveniles - these two were with two others, presumably the other parent and another young one - working their way through the barnacle- and seaweed-covered rocks along the shore, the young one following the parent with close attention.

In the mating season the parents defend a territory, locally a section of shore, at the back of which they build their nest and lay their eggs. By autumn we see them either along the coast like this or forming quite large flocks which gather on shingle and sand banks at places like Littleferry - which, if they're serious at parenting, shows the other, much less serious side of their character for, when they aren't tutoring junior, these are noisy, sociable birds.

As with so many of our shore birds, the oystercatchers' numbers are falling, by over 20% in the last twenty-five years, so they are now on the conservation status 'amber' list. I just cannot imagine a shoreline like this one along the Sutherland coast without these birds but, unless something drastic happens, the oystercatcher may join the other ten out of twenty-six British sea birds which are now on the 'red' list of endangered species.