Nairn harbour, Highlands

The Moray Firth looked featureless with the grey, calm sea extending northwards to the Cromarty Firth eight miles away. The birds thought otherwise as each species was exploiting its own different area.

A group of eider ducks off the end of the pier were diving for shellfish, including three adult males with their characteristic lime-green feathers on the sides of the head. As usual they were accompanied by a few gulls awaiting any scraps that they could steal. Further out were four scaup ducks, three of them males, and a single herring gull, again waiting for scraps, although the ducks seemed more intent on sleeping than feeding. Five cormorants were using a large buoy, a long way from shore, as a convenient place to launch themselves into another fishing trip. If successful, they returned to the buoy and sat with wings open, looking heraldic, although whether to dry them or aid digestion still seems a mystery.

A hidden sand bar, way out, was making shallow waves as the tide ebbed. Redshank, oystercatcher and curlew flew past the area as if waiting for the new feeding place to appear. Then we heard the geese, long before we saw them, and eventually around 200, in two ragged skeins, came in from the north. Perhaps they were making their first landfall since setting out from their breeding grounds in Iceland. Whatever, the sights and sounds echoing over the sea were sheer magic.

As we left, a rainbow formed over the end of the pier and the sand bar won its battle over the sea. The first gulls dropped in and as the water rippled around their webbed feet a group of waders, redshank with white, sparkling wing bars, joined them.