Nothing like work to ruin a holiday... (Pick up your plastic)

My Mum hates beaches and swimming pools. She used to be a lifeguard and still teaches swimming and kayaking; she says she can't relax watching everyone throw themselves or their children into stupid and dangerous situations. That's how I see plastic pollution. Fortunately for Mum, she can stay out of the way; unfortunately for me, plastic pollution is EVERYWHERE. Take, for example, this picture that I snapped whilst on the "blonde birders" trip with Tom. 

Are you following me?

How am I supposed to get a quiet weekends birding in when all I can think is, "I wonder where that came from?" or "this beach must be suffering the combined effects of prevailing wind and enclosed topography". It's just not fair.

Or how about this little doozy, take at the shag colony on Wee Cumbrae. "How many other nests are like this?", "does it impact chick survivorship via entanglement?". 

Durability is key in nesting materials

Well I'm fed up, I don't want to be surveying beach litter when I should be scanning for divers, and I definitely don't want to be checking out polymer ropes when I should be checking my footholds. So please, for me, for my hobby, for our wildlife: pick up your plastic, pick up someone else's plastic. Then maybe I can relax on my weekends instead of thinking up research methodology.

Thanks.