A curlew by the beach on Loch Etive

I went for a drive along the road beside the house to the end of the peninsular at Bonawe. I walked past the big stone quarry to see if I could look up the glen of Loch Etive, where there are no roads. I managed to find some different views over the loch in various direction but I couldn't see further inland as I'd hoped.  the only way will be to get a cruise up the loch which we did about ten years ago, but we may not have the time this year.

On the way back to the house, which is sited right by the beach on the north shore of the loch, I stopped by Ardchattan Priory when I saw some geese swimming in a small bay.  When I got out of the car I set up a curlew which was feeding in the seaweed left by the receding tide on the beach and it flew a few hundred yards further up the coast. I walked stealthily along the road by the beach and managed to scare it again, but luckily it flew back to where my car was.

So I returned the way I had come and then spotted that there were actually two curlews and the one that had flown away had done so to distract me from its mate. I waited behind some bushes and then managed to take some shots of the pair of them flying away, as well as this shot of the original bird. We are so lucky to have all this wildlife right beside the the house. One year I looked out of the bedroom window over the beach and I saw two otters feeding on the edge of the beach.  What a joy.  I am always ever hopeful of seeing them again, but I know it isn't very likely.