Simply Norman and me right now: he is unable to drive for every week or two, so I picked him up and headed north earlier than the visitors constructed up. We began in Bishop’s Cover, the place virtually the primary birds we noticed have been a few shut Inexperienced Sandpipers: additional away was a gathering of twenty or so Cattle Egrets with half a dozen Spoonbills. Each teams have been made up of adults and juvenile birds: amusing to observe the ‘teaspoons’ harrassing their moms for meals. Too distant within the ferocious warmth haze for good pictures was, I suppose, a Curlew Sandpiper.
A transfer to the centre hides was rewarded by one other Inexperienced Sandpiper and – distantly – two Little Stints and a Frequent Sandpiper. The Egrets have been being commonly flushed by a Marsh Harrier, and sheltered among the many cattle: it felt like being again on the Somme Estuary!
After tea and a scone, we took a stroll alongside the East Financial institution, the place the one new hen – for the 12 months in addition to the day – was a distant Arctic Skua chasing terns offshore.
An fascinating hen was a juvenile Little Ringed Plover, which had apparently been reported as a Kentish Plover…
