Oystercatchers

This morning's walk took me along the old coast track to the north of Dunrobin Castle, the weather grey with a light southwesterly and the tide high, but the air must have been exceptionally....

....clear because the wind turbines out in the Beatrice field were easily visible.

Any shingle beach not covered by the tide has been broken up into sections, each of which belongs to....

....a pair of oystercatchers. These will be building a nest at the top of the beach, above the high-tide line, little more than a scoop in a patch of gravel, and will start the heavy task of protecting the eggs from the hoards of local crows and the dogs that are walked along the path just up from the beach.

I counted four pairs, all of them already looking pretty exhausted, though some had the good sense to take their nap on a rock offshore.

All this was good to see as I've been worried about the lack of oystercatchers in the places where they are usually plentiful. Now all I can do is wish them luck in bringing up their families.