Loch Fleet

It's weeks since we last walked at Loch Fleet so today, with the weather set fair, we took our usual route, starting on the northern side of the loch and walking towards the sea. The shingle banks in the picture are often a convenient roost for waders but the only ones we saw, a small flock of what might have been sanderlings, seemed in a hurry to be elsewhere.

This picture looks back from the beach that runs along the eastern side of the National Nature Reserve towards the mouth of the loch, where a strong current into the loch indicated the approach of high tide. 

We walked northwards along the beach until we found a bank where we could sit and look back along the beach, and look back too to the many beaches upon which we have sat in our time together. This is hardly the most exciting beach, particularly since so much of the wildlife seems to have deserted it, though....

....there was a flock of over a hundred oystercatchers on the far side of the loch.

On our way home we stopped at a picnic site provided by NatureScot where we could sit in the intermittent sunshine and look out across the inner pools of the sea loch. By this time the tide was high.

This extensive area was occupied by small groups of widgeon, perhaps a hundred in all, a few gulls, and half-a-dozen cormorants.