Deserted

We started today's walk on the shores of Loch Fleet, looking out across acres of mudflats exposed by the fallen tide, mudflats being exploited by a very few birds that were too far away to be certain of identification other than the gulls and, from their call, widgeon. I'm just so puzzled that these mudflats, evidently worked by armies of worms, don't attract legions of waders to feed on them.

The pine plantation we walked through to reach the beach was a little more lively, with the calls of chaffinch, wren, robin and coal tit, and the sharp rat-a-tat of a woodpecker, but....

....the beach was utterly deserted by its normal wildlife, seeing only one gull in the time we were there until, towards the mouth of Loch Fleet, we spotted a flock of upward of a hundred low-flying ducks which I took to be eider.

Crossing the links on our way back to the car we saw spring's first wildflower of the links habitat, a lone daisy basking in the sun. 

I found the walk deeply depressing, and cannot explain why, in an hour and a half's wandering, we saw so little in the way of wildlife. I sometimes wonder whether the fault is in me, that, in my increasing age, I spend more time looking at where I place my feet rather that searching around for the wildlife.