Dumfries and Galloway Day 2

 Day 2 and it rained. It rained all day, except for the late afternoon, where it was overcast and cloudy. During that time I decided to go for a walk because I had been sat inside most of the day and decided that I needed to do something. I walked up the beach and therefore round the heath to see what was about. The first thing I saw was a juvenile guillemot, which had probably just fledged and was currently lost.













-Juvenile Guillemot 
Walking further up the beach and there must have been quite a few fish out to sea because there were a few fishing birds about, namely sandwich tern and gannet, which were quite close to land.

-Sandwich Tern

-Gannet 
at a point further up the beach and the rocks disappeared to be replaced by sand and gravel, which were more appealing to waders, and there were a lot more of them here. Mainly ringed plovers, which had gathered in a rather large flock.

-Ringed Plovers
It was in that region that I flushed a large flock of curlews, mixed with some oystercatchers. sadly I was not able to see them when they were roosted. It was still nice to see them though, although it was from a distance












-Curlews
small groups of ringed plovers were always moving up and down the beach, as well as a handful of turnstones and redshanks, though these were much less frequent.

-Ringed Plovers 
Looking up, the flock of curlews had turned back on itself and was flying over me again. They moved further up the beach than where I had intended to walk, but since I hadn't yet found a way back that diddnt involve walking back the way I came, it seemed unlikely that I would see them again.

-Curlews
there seemed to be a curve in the beach where the sand had congregated, and so the birds had followed suit., and it was here that there were the most birds and most bird species. There were a few gulls besides the waders, but most of the birds were waders. There seemed to be some kind of order, which the oystercatchers on the sea front, with ringed plovers and turnstones further back.

-Oystercatchers 

-Turnstone

-Ringed Plovers
I could see, across the sand that there was a cottage, and assumed that this cottage must have a link to the road, which I could use to get back home. Walking round to the cottage I spotted a hare on the beach, which was lovely to see.

-Hare on the beach
I managed to find the path back to the road, and on the way there I spotted another hare in a sheep field, bringing my hare total up to 2 for the day.

-Hare in field