Great guesses, one and all! I’ve got a snazzy new list of birds to watch for, thanks to you. And this wasn’t really a fair challenge, but you rose to it, and I’m proud o’ ye!

Trebuchet got it – black oystercatcher. How he found that standing bird, I’ll never know – I couldn’t until he said to look for it, and I knew there were a bunch of birds on that beach! The bird landing should also be one. They were hard to see, especially through a camera screen, but I do belive the one that landed is the one in the first photo I shall show you next. I was trying to keep it within my sights. They were all the same – no mixed company for these wee ones. Not at that moment.

I’ll do up the geology properly with explanatory photos soon, but Moarscienceplz wins the punstakes. “I dunite know.” LOLgroan. And also a win with freeze-thaw cycles. I’m certain those rocks are weathering out, not being dragged there by waves. You’ll see some more lines of evidence soon.
All right, here are your further photos, as promised!

Here’s one showing off its neon red-orange beak in a shy but standout manner.

They sound rather like seagulls, only not as obnoxious. They seem like the much more well-behaved cousins of seagulls. And they’re all over those cobbles like a boss.

This one was off to join its mates, who were picking around by the water’s edge.

There were several of them, but it was hard to get good shots from where we were, and we weren’t about to go down and harsh their mellow. At least we got good enough pics for an ident, right? You, my darlings, are the absolute best.