Back on the beach

I didn't go out yesterday afternoon because we had 50mph gusts rising to 70mph later on and I didn't think it was a particularly wise idea to go scrambling round the countryside when it was hard enough standing up in the back garden. So to make up for it I took a wander down to the beach today (OK, so I wanted to check the rabbits were leaving my garlic alone, the beach was sort of incidental!).

Our neighbour used to take his boat down to the beach behind his tractor and it makes a useful path for getting down to the main footpath:



It was a good day for skies (and I'm still loving Lightroom's ability to add an ND grad filter onto pictures!):



And the wind was coming off the sea and pushing the Armadale burn back up the beach:



Normally I try not to split pictures in half with the horizon, but when it's a reflection you can just about get away with it:



And just to prove to my family that I've finally succumbed to genetics and started gardening - a weeded bit of border:



As you can see, there's a lot more to do...:



And that's before I start on the veggie field - the tiny little brown strip in the top left of the field is a 10ft x 4ft bed!:



The garlic is coming on nicely though :o)

Photography club

I went out to Crosskirk last night with Thurso Photography Club. The weather was pretty horrible, a flat grey sky and drizzle, so we stayed out for an hour and then gave up.

Because of the lack of colour, thanks to the light, I had to think about what would make a good black and white photo. These are my three best attempts from the night (and if you click on any of the pics to go through to Flickr, you'll see the fourth as well, which is another dead sheep!). The building is an old snuff mill.

Back on the beach

After being stuck in all week due to volume of work and weather, I was determined to get out this morning. It was dry but overcast and had rained heavily the night before, so I stuck on my walking boots and went down to the beach (no tales of jeopardy and mortal danger today I'm afraid!).

The tide was out, which made it a great day to explore round the rocks and rock pools that scatter the edge of the beach. This one made me think of a giant rock caterpillar that had crawled out of the sea to drink at the rockpool:



No scrambling about on them though, because they're covered in seaweed. I think this is serrated wrack, but I'm still trying to make sure of that:



I went down to the edge of the water and watched the gulls for a bit:





The rain had swelled the Allt Beag and the Armadale Burn and they'd cut bigger channels down the beach than usual:



And then the weather started to clear. The next two photos were taken from the same spot within a minute of each other - just pointing in different directions:





Caithness and Sutherland do big skies very well:





And finally, I can't go down to that beach without photographing a ringed plover, can I? Today's mission was to get a good shot of one on the move, since they're the coastal equivalent of Road Runner:

Some live wildlife for a change!

We woke up to glorious sunshine this morning, so I decided to get out with the camera while the sun shone and worry about work this afternoon. Good decision, as it turned out, because the sun went in around 11 and it rained on and off for the rest of the day. Still, I went down to Port a' Chinn again and this was the view from the top:



The rabbits were out and about (the lines across the picture are sheep netting):





and I don't know who was more surprise, me or this rock pipit when it landed on a tractor tyre about 10 feet in front of me:



I climbed back up from Port a Chinn and went down to Armadale bay to check on the ringed plover family. Thanks to the wind over the past few days, the nest had been covered over with sand and I found one dead chick. But both adults were still around and getting very agitated when I went towards one area of the beach, so I'm hopeful that the other three chicks are live and kicking, although I didn't find them. I got some better shots of the parents this time:





I also saw this bird - wasn't too sure what it was and thought it might be a juvenile oystercatcher, but turns out it's actually a sandpiper:

It's there, I know it's there...

Firstly, I'm proud to reveal the owner of those eggs:



- a ringed plover. It's a pretty rotten shot, but they're not very big and they can run like the clappers!

This is where I think the otter lives:



If you look at the bank, you can make out paw prints. I've spoken to some more of our neighbours now and they say they think there is one there, but there's certainly one at the other beach at the end of the road. I haven't been down there yet, so that's next on the list of places to explore. The downside is that for the best chance of seeing one, you need to go down there around 5am or earlier, and I'm not the best mornings person in the world...

I was looking at natural patterns last night. It was about half past nine when I got to the beach and the sun had lowered over the headland. So we got stripes:



and we got waves in the sand:

Sunshine on the beach

With weather like this, who needs the Caribbean?



We've been here three days now; the first day was foggy, yesterday it rained, but today has been glorious - as you can see:



We went down onto the beach and walked to the far end and back this afternoon. Although we didn't see any oystercatchers, we did see what I think are some oystercatcher eggs:



and, sadly, a sheep that had wandered off the cliff:



And I got to practise my tracking shots on the gulls again so that when I run into a buzzard, I stand a decent chance of getting a good shot!