Udale Bay, Cromarty Firth

Another warm October day. I had to take my car in to Inverness to fit a tow bar but a friend came and picked me up and we went off to the hide at Udale Bay. An amazing place - so many birds in such a small bay. Here they are lined up in this picture in layers for ease of identification:
herring gulls, crows, oyster catchers, wigeon, herons, more wigeon, redshank and knots. In addition mixed in or elsewhere were peewits, greenshank, curlew, bar tailed godwits, golden plover, mallard, teal, Canada geese, greylag geese, white fronted geese, mute swans and the odd marauding hobby and merlin from the skies above. I offer this information courtesy of two knowledgeable bird watchers we had the good fortune to meet and chat with. Some of the identification I could have coped with but there was no way I would have spotted the white fronted goose without considerable assistance.