An Elf Cup Walk

This morning's sun managed only occasionally to punch a hole through the overcast but at least we didn't have the biting northerly wind which has plagued us the last few days, so I set off for a walk, starting along the beach below Dunrobin Castle. With the tide rising such waders as there were along the tideline were being pushed up the beach but many....

....like this oystercatcher, were relaxing and very loath to take off on my approach, preferring to wait until I was uncomfortably close before....

....deciding to follow the curlew's example and moving elsewhere.

I walked back through the woods with the express intention of checking on....

....the scarlet elf cups. Of the three sites I visited where I've seen this fungus before, only the main site had any, and then it was few; so it looks as if their season is coming to an end, leaving us with virtually no fungi at all.