A beautiful
day, very cold but sunny. After an early excursion to the shops to restock my
fridge, an intricate dance with a shopping cart as my partner along the narrow
aisles to avoid any other potential infectious shopper, I went to the beach for
a walk. Yesterday the beach I wanted to go to was closed off, police keeping
watch so that no cars should find alternative routes. And if they managed to do
so, they would have found all the parking lots closed and cordoned off. Today I
chose another part of the beach and was luckier. The weather forecast isn’t so
positive for tomorrow, and this may be the last sunny day for now in a remarkable
string of perfectly sunny but cold days. I had figured out that it might be
relatively quiet as it was still early, which was indeed the case. It may also have
been due to the very cold wind of course, which I did not notice till I turned
back and faced North.
Looking towards Scheveningen
I was afraid the fine sand which was chased across the
beach by the strong winds would damage my camera, so I did not use it much. But
the wind and the waves at least swept all the cobwebs away and cleared my head –
and made a mess of my hair.
One of the
funniest things I saw was a group of sandpipers, huddling together in a long
double line, facing the wind. Every so often a few birds at the top of the line
would turn around and run to the back of the line to be out of the wind,
sheltered by the other birds. I did not have much of a chance to film them,
which was a pity, for they run very fast on their tiny legs. I had never seen
them do this before. Usually they forage in groups, busily moving along the
breaking wavelets at the flood line, trying to find some fresh delicacy. Seeing
them like this was new for me.
Sandpipers
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