July 19th

There were 225+ dunlin on Balcomie Beach at lunchtime today, three ringed plovers, 20 or so sanderling and a few turnstone and redshank. The seaweed has rotted to a dense black mulch, pitted now with beak holes. The seaweed fly maggots must be legion to sustain such numbers day after day. Although the little ringed plover seems to have moved on, the Mediterranean gull is still feeding with the black-headed gulls in the surf of Roome Bay at high tide. Its black hood is getting patchier every day and is now speckled with white.

Some of the over 200 dunlin now at Balcomie