Around Aberdeen: Oystercatchers

Seagulls - or, rather, rats with wings - are ubiquitous in Aberdeen, as it's right on Scotland's northern coast. A couple of months ago, I started seeing a new type of bird, smaller than a seagull, with black and white plumage and a long, orange beak used for digging town into the ground (presumably to feed). The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (there's a Royal Society for pretty much everything) has a bird identifier utility on its website, so I used it to figure out what it was that I was looking at. The answer? Oystercatchers. I occasionally see them getting into airborne fights with attacking seagulls, but since oystercatchers don't seem to do things like steal food or spread garbage around, and they're a lot quieter than seagulls, and they seem to travel in pairs (awwwww), they've garnered a sort of soft spot with yours truly.

Now, if only CN Black Sheep and I could figure out a way to significantly cull the seagull population...