Christine's walking & birds blog

We went to Inverness for shopping and lunch; it was fairly quiet, although not as empty as when Greger was there a couple of weeks ago. The vast majority of people were following the rules and wearing masks in Eastgate Shopping Centre and in all shops.

Back home I visited the spit, where I spotted the Sabine's hunkered down in some pretty large company.

It's quite a sleepyhead, this gull - and just after I took the picture, it tucked its head back to continue its nap. Unfortunately a dog ran down from the path and put all the gulls and waders in the air. A couple of curlews went flying up the loch, accompanied by something greyer in colour; but maybe it was just a greyish curlew. I had no chance to follow up the sighting as all hell then broke loose. The wind got up ferociously and drove rain and something like hail straight across the loch. I stood by a gorse bush but the shelter it gave was negligible, and in a matter of minutes I was soaking wet. Home to dry out clothes and optics!