Oystercatchers

I went out to Deerness and walked from Lighthouses Corner out to Mull Head and back. Still very windy, though pretty mild in the rare moments I found shelter.
No rarities, but it was nice to see large numbers of oystercatchers back. I was almost hit by a sniper. Sorry, I mean by a snipe- in fact a flock of about twenty zoomed past at high speed on either side of me at only a few feet distance. Also about were ravens, greylag geese, shelduck, fulmars, shags, razorbills etc.
From the bus back to town I saw a nice short-eared owl and then a beautiful male hen harrier flew within about three feet of the windscreen. 'They never do that when I'm driving groups of birdwatchers around', said the driver. 'Lucky you didn't hit it', I said, 'you'd be in big trouble.'