NW Scotland - Ardmair Bay Beach Cairns

On a mainly overcast day in June this year, I visited Ardmair Bay on the main road to the north of Ullapool.  On the beach are a number of cairns built out of the flat beach pebbles, and I thought I would try to capture them in photographs.

 

A number of stones have been signed by visitors.

 

A resting place amongst the cairns for a visitor and.....

 

....for a local House Sparrow.

 

I wondered if these beach cairns were a unique build at Ardmair, and suspecting they are not, I googled to see if I could find any other images, but a quick search failed to find any other locations, the beach at Cairns in Australia being the main photos appearing (and a bit different to this cool and pebble beach).

Bedfordshire - A Frosty Morning

Beautiful, if cold weather yesterday morning at the Grand Union Canal, Old Linslade.

A sparrow in amongst the Blackthorn.

Scotland - Lobster Pots Birdlife

Again from June trip to the NW of Scotland

The quay at Tarbet where you catch the boat to the bird island of Handa.

 Lobster pots where stacked in the car park by the quayside.  I was amused by a busy and noisy family of House Sparrows which were perching on and in the pots (safe from predators?).

The abstract shapes and lines of the stacked pots.

A female or juvenile Linnet (I think) taking advantage of a pot as a perch

Startops Reservoir Tring - July Birds Pt 2

More photographs from my visit to Startops Reservoir earlier this month

A Mute Swan pretending to sleep with one eye open...

...perhaps to keep a lookout for this nesting male House Sparrow with a swan's feather in his beak.

A female chaffinch framed by a male mallard

A Reed Warbler in the reed bed of the adjoining Marsworth Reservoir