Old Carrot-Face is noisy today

Oystercatchers are a noisy fact of life here on Westray. There’s not a spot of coastline which isn’t guarded by some zealous bird with its neurotic pleeping alarm call.

This beach is much the same.

Their Orcadian name is Skeldro, Chaldro, or Shaalder. I suspect which one you use is determined by which of the Orkney Islands you’re on.

Whichever island you’re on, though, the pleeping alarm is just the same.