My kind of day

It was a beautiful start to the day, perfect Challenge weather, so, rather than entertaining TTS’s suggestion that I cut the grass today, I decided to go for a stroll. It was, after all, the perfect day for a bit of bird spotting.

I strolled to the post office first, primarily to post a Thank You card to Val, Tina and Sarah at Cougie Lodge. They were party to me not giving up on the second day of my Challenge (what a wuss, I ask you…) then on I went to the marshes. As I’d hoped, the burn was low, indicating a low tide, so I ambled on to the marshes, binoculars at the ready.

What a glorious day, blue skies with the odd fluffy, white cloud, plenty of warm sunshine, a breeze just light enough to keep off the flies, but not enough to chill when pausing to enjoy the view.

There were  acrobatic swallows, charming goldfinches (ho ho! Sorry), bubbling curlew, tuneful skylarks (I’m deliberately avoiding alliteration here…) insistent oystercatchers and plentiful meadow pipits, not to mention the less exciting gulls and corvids.

I crossed the burn, past by the Three Bears’ House (old defence turret thingy/pillbox) and I made my way to a handy tree trunk made for perching my bum on and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

My patience (which is unusual) was eventually rewarded when I spotted two osprey, fishing in the bay! They were way out and tricky to see, one disappeared when I took my eye off it momentarily, but I saw the other one dive and the huge splash as it hit the target. Judging by the way it was mobbed by the local gulls, I suspect it was successful and disappeared off to enjoy the catch, or feed it to an expectant mate or maybe even chicks! (No camera, of course.)

There was another bird, behaving in a suspiciously osprey like way, but I didn’t see it dive, just flying to a perch on the opposite river bank and staying quite a while, typical of a bird enjoying a meal. Trouble was, it was at quite a distance and the water haze made it difficult to pick out any detail, so I couldn’t positively ID it as an osprey. My guess would be yes, but that maybe because I want it to have been one!

A far better way to spend my time than cutting the grass. That’ll still be there in the morning.

On days like this, I love my world.