The Kessock Bridge

We were up and out of the house at silly o'clock, 5.15 am, this morning to take Richard to work.
I was hoping for a sunrise but no such luck with the sun as it was raining. We had to wait for Wickes to open at 7.30am so bought a hot sausage roll and took it down to Merkinch to eat and to see what was about. The carpark looks down the Beauly Firth and when the tide is out there are large mudflats with a variety of waders.
Plenty of Oyster catchers and black headed gulls, already in their winter plumage, were digging into the grass in front of the car. Three crows were squabbling over berries on a bush. There were also a few herons and red shanks.

We drove round to the marina where I took this photo of the bridge and I was delighted to see an otter. We watched it swimming and fishing for about 30 minutes before going to Wickes, that's us not the otter !

REALLY heavy rain for most of the morning but again brightened up after lunch :)