Oystercatcher

I went to see if I could catch some of the waves which have been smashing into the coast for the last couple of days. I went to Talland Bay and walked around the cliff path to Polperro. The wind was not as strong as yesterday but there was still a big swell and the waves were crashing into the cliffs.

They had done a lot of damage to the beach cafe at Talland and workmen were busy fixing the damage as I walked past. The cliff path was fine, and all the way, there were fine views up and down the coast. I took a lot of shots of the waves as they broke against the cliffs. The waves on the North Coast would have been bigger, judging by what was shown on the news, but there were still some impressive displays.

I tried to get birds into the shots where I could - I saw kestrels, oystercatcher, a range of gulls, a flight of mallard and a goldcrest. I managed to come back with almost 350 shots, which I initially edited down to 177. It was difficult to choose just one! I chose this one for the colours on the oystercatcher and the wave bearing down on it. It took quite a heavy crop to get this perspective, but I feel it sums up the conditions.

Now my legs feel like they belong to someone else! It's not a huge distance, but there are some steep bits and as my left hip and right knee are both complaining at the moment, parts of it were quite hard work and I really appreciated getting back to the car.

No doubt a good night's sleep will put it right and I'm intending to go down to the local nature reserve tomorrow morning and see what is around there.