Christmas

The dove is a symbol of peace, so it seems very appropriate that the first dove arrived in our garden just in time for Christmas.

A very happy and peaceful Christmas to all readers.

Old & New

The massive defences of the old....

....are so easily breached by the attacks of the micro-new.

Cuckoo Ray

A small group of carrion crows regularly dispute the pickings along the beach just to the south of Golspie, arguing with the resident gulls, particularly the herring gulls, so if we see the crows congregate at a spot along the beach we investigate.

Their interest the other day was a small ray, about two foot long, which had a pair of very distinctive 'eyes' on its dorsal surface. A quick search on the internet identified it as a cuckoo ray, one of thirteen rays found in British waters, including the common skate, thornback, small eyed, undulate, common stingray, electric, blonde, common eagle, starry, bottle nosed and sandy. I had no idea there were so many species.

The cuckoo ray is not common in the northern North Sea, so we were fortunate to see it.

Small Bird Report

This is the view of our tiny back yard from the kitchen sink, with a bird table, a fat ball, and three suspended feeders visible. We're fortunate that a neighbour has a large holly tree near our fence, and most of the small birds who visit us use this as protection and a vantage point.

The most common birds at the feeders are the house sparrows, who turn up in groups of about six and squabble over who can have first go on the bird table. Some of them have learned how to work the suspended feeders and can even 'hover' to eat the fat ball.

We're not short of blackbirds either, both local ones - the males have orange beaks - and the immigrants from Scandinavia, which have dark beaks.

The first on to our feeders were the coal tits (above), followed by the blue tits and, finally, a great tit. Having shown the way, they've now been rather crowded out by the other birds though, considering their size, the coal tits can be remarkably pushy.

A great deal of the fun goes out of feeding the small birds once the starlings arrive. At first they come singly but now they're here in ravening flocks. They're a very smart bird but they're loud, quarrelsome and bullies.

There are some notable absentees. We have yet to see a siskin in Golspie, and the chaffinches, which were the most common bird in Kilchoan, are only to be found in small numbers by the Golspie Burn. Yellowhammers, too, are missing: again, they were a common bird in Kilchoan but they really belong in open fields, yet had disappeared from our area of Suffolk.

That said, we're thrilled at the number of small birds we have, such a change from Suffolk where we were often lucky to see more than half a dozen small birds in a day. Their numbers may be explained by an apparent and surprising absentee from the area - the domestic cat.

Winter Sunshine

Walking along the beach to the southwest of Golspie today the sun was almost painful in our eyes. It seems we, in what should be the bitter northeast of Scotland, are blessed with fine weather while the south of England is flooded, though I am sure we will yet see some more appropriate weather.

We have a wide choice of walks yet, in such weather and with the tide right, we are constantly drawn back to the beach. We had the additional privilege today of being able to walk along a beach shared by only three other people in the two hours we wandered it.

For some time we sat on a rock and watched and listened to the waves break, a monotonous but soothing sound to which, if we ever get the opportunity, I would love once again to fall asleep.

We watched, and were watched by a seal. The denizens of the beach were all very much at peace in their sunshine world, including....

....this grey heron, which seemed quite happy to allow us to approach close, and equally happy to tolerate a redshank on an adjacent boulder.

Suds Along the Sands

Maybe Friday is washing day in Golspie, or maybe it's just the long, slow, frothy tumble of the waves coming in to the sandy beach, but suds covered the foreshore in front of today's rising tide. Sadly, the tide also brought in and deposited....

....a fully biodegradable dead guillemot, the first of what will probably be many dead birds this winter.

Golspie's beaches are remarkably clean of human rubbish, to the extent that a single errant Walkers crisp bag not only sticks out but is irritating. Why are we so careless with our litter? Or, perhaps more practically, why don't we ensure that things, like this, which are very likely to be so carelessly cast aside, aren't as fully biodegradable as a guillemot? And, incidentally.... what on earth is the connection between a pretty girl, snowflakes, prawn cocktail and a competition?

Sunset

This picture was taken at a quarter to three from the coast path to the northeast of Golspie, with the sun already setting across the Dornoch Firth, the official time of sunset today being 15.27.

We had passed Dunrobin Castle, which may be a strange cocktail of styles added over the years, so it more resembles a fairy castle than a serious fortress, but it sits on a strategically important site whose occupation dates back to Pictish times if not earlier. At this point the flat land along the coast, which the path follows, is at its narrowest, with the ground rising rapidly behind, so whoever holds the castle controls movement north-south along the coast.

Today few people follow the path, mostly casual walkers like us or dog-walkers or the occasional more serious walker on his/her way to or from John o' Groats, but to pass through this gate is to tread in the footsteps of thousands of people who have used this ancient highway over the centuries.

It was wonderfully peaceful today, with flocks of birds - mostly gulls and crows - forming and then breaking up into small groups which set off for their roosts for the night.