First day, first beach...

As usual our first “proper” day over here has to involve a beach (it’s the rules) so in spite of a rather overcast and blustery day off we went to Culla Bay on Benbecula. This was chosen for several reasons – but mainly that it’s not too far away from the Co-op where we wanted to call in for some additional food shopping that we were unable to get yesterday due to space in the car being somewhat limited before we’d unloaded all our possessions from it.

Here you go – this was the beach…

…As you can see, a bit grey, although it did brighten up the longer we were there. It’s a fantastic curving bay, one of the most sheltered anywhere on the Islands, so ideal for a blowy, chilly day like today, and walking into the wind on the way out was certainly bracing! The birds were undaunted though and we saw Dunlin, Turnstones, Sanderling and Ringed Plover as well as the usual to be expected Gulls. No shots of any of those though as with the wind that was blowing the sand about there was no chance I was going to be changing camera lenses! Instead I concentrated on some of the detail we came across…

…Limpets minding their own business on a rock.

Seaweed has been used traditionally by the crofters up here as a fertiliser – they collect it up, allow it to rot well, and then spread it on the fields on the machair to enrich the sandy soil and make it viable for growing – and having eaten food grown on it I can assure you it REALLY works! When it’s just sitting happily on a rock though it does look rather pretty…

Of course one thing we’re all familiar with I’m sure when walking on beaches is the amount of rubbish you find – either washed up by the sea or carelessly discarded by someone who was there before you. Thankfully the beaches up here are mostly pretty clean and tidy, with the majority of the rubbish you find having been washed up. Some of it is even quite eyecatching and colourful…

See? No wonder I couldn’t resist taking a shot of that!

Robyn