Black Oyster Catcher nest on the Wild Coast – Featured Blog

The Wild Coast is all about the rugged coastline, beautiful beaches, rolling green hills, dramatic waterfalls, spectacular river mouths, friendly and hospitable people.  So in fact that many visitors often miss the little things.  And y’all know how I can go on about not just looking at the bigger picture when you are travelling.

A little while ago I was staying at Wavecrest Hotel and took an early morning walk down to the river mouth.  It was raining all night and the morning was cloudy and gloomy so I left my camera in my room and just went to enjoy the fresh air.  Close to the river mouth I watched a pair of Black Oyster Catchers eyeballing me awhile making a heck of a lot of noise.  I realised that they must have a nest close by but what interested me more was how close I was to them without them flying off.  Darn, and me without my camera.  So I schlepped back to the hotel to fetch my camera and headed back to the beach.  As I was approaching one was walking around between the boulders and on spotting me flew back to its mate making a lot of noise again.  Now I know that is how they try to lure any potential danger to a nest away from it so I decided to have a look.      

I approached the area carefully as I have never seen a Black Oyster Catcher nest before and wasn’t sure what to look for.  And suddenly there it was right in front of me.  By my footprints I actually passed not more than two meters away from it earlier before fetching my camera.

The camouflage was amazing but more amazing was the fact that the nest was nothing more than a slight hollow in the sand filled with shells and pebbles. 

I didn’t want to get too close as (future) mom and dad was swearing at me from nearby so I popped the long lens on the camera to get one last closeup before giving them their space back.  Isn’t that scene just a work of art?