A visitor on the beach

We're starting to get some Weather here now and the seas have picked up further:



I went down to the beach this morning and found this fellow considering his/her options:



Rather sensibly, it decided that discretion was the better part of valour (it was hailing at this point!) and settled down in the shallows:



There's a lot of foam washing in:



And the Allt Beag is running faster, deeper and wider than I've ever seen it:



(no, I didn't try crossing it! That's the *smaller* of the two!)

Typically the weather cheered up as I climbed back up to the house:



And I discovered that we do have hedgehogs round here, though sadly this one appears to have succumbed to the weather:



EDIT: I've been informed by m'learned friends on caithness.org that it's not a goose, it's actually a first year Whooper swan. Live and learn!