A -dabbling

Tell me, where do you live? – 
Near here, by the fishing-pool? 
Let's hold our boats together,  let's see 
If we belong in the same town.


Yes, I live here, by the river; 
I have sailed on it many and many a time. 
Both of us born in Changgan, you and I! 
Why haven't we always known each other?
Cui Hao 



Tang poet Cui Hao was penning these two quatrains at much the same time the barrows were being built at Sutton Hoo .  


As I walked along the estuary today, I wondered how much the scenery has really changed since Saxon times. Rather less than the China of the Tang poet, I suspect.


The wading bird itself has remained pretty much unchanged  - although if it is (as I suspect)  a blacktailed godwit, it is on the RSPB RED list, as globally threatened. As winter plumages are similar, it might be a bar-tailed godwit, in which case it is only on the RSPB AMBER list (unfavourable conservation status in Europe). More expert ornithologists are welcome to give me a steer on this!