Test Marshes

The Test marshes shortly after dawn, seen from the old road bridge. This is a good place for birds. There were 5 swans when I first arrived, here we see the last three of them flying deeper into the marshland reserve. There were common sandpipers with their plaintive piping calls, announcing that it was time for autumn passage. They are heading south from the upland rivers and lakes of northern Britain stopping off here in the south of England to fuel up for migration. A kingfisher whistled and streaked, electric blue across the water and landed at the reedbed edge way beyond reach of my telephoto. The ubiquitous little egrets were feeding at the water's edge - strange to recall seeing my very first egret in Britain not much more than twenty years ago at Dungeness. A couple of days ago Wifie saw a spoonbill here as we drove over the modern flyover - eyes on the road, I missed it.

I finally managed to drag myself out of bed before the morning mists burned off. It's always harder to get up early when I am staying away from home.

Apart from this early foray, it was a morning of getting things done for Dad before we spent much of the afternoon and evening travelling back to Cumbria. It felt a bit like a Summer's day today, bright and warm, though it was decidedly autumnal first thing when this photo was taken.