Oh what a beautiful morning

It was much too nice to stay inside, so I walked down to Port a'Chinn, because I haven't been for ages. On the way I saw an enormous bird perched on a pile of stones in the field behind the salmon bothy. Got a bit closer and with the lens on full zoom managed to catch it:



I think that must be the buzzard which we've seen hunting over the hill behind our house. I tried to sneak round the house and get closer but by the time the rock pile was back in view again, he'd gone. I climbed up there to see if he was perched on a fence post, because I'd have seen him if he'd gone up into the sky, but not a sign.

The fishermen were out this morning and had left their salmon nets drying at the top of the cliff:





And just to be a bit arty-farty, here's the previous shot in black and white, which I think works a little bit better:



Then it was down onto the beach. Masses of rock pipits down there this morning:





I also found out which cave it is that goes through to the hidden waterfall and since it was low tide crawled through to have a look. It's been dry recently, so the waterfall was less than impressive, but I'll go back once we've had a few days of rain and take some pictures.

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: