Knot only...

How can I possibly choose just one image to represent such an amazing day? As I'd been ill on my birthday, we'd decided to defer my birthday outing until I was properly better. I had been planning to go to London, but last week I decided that I'd rather have a day out on the North Norfolk coast instead.

So today Chris, Pete and I were all up by five o'clock, and then drove through the dark to arrive at the RSPB's Snettisham Reserve before sunrise. Many other people had the same idea and the car park was full by quarter to seven. A route march to the beach along 1.5 miles of muddy track was rewarded by the spectacle of thousands of pink-footed geese leaving their roosts on the mud flats, and flying inland to feed on sugar beet. At some points the skeins of geese formed a lacy web over the eastern sky, flushed with the apricot of a perfect dawn. 

We'd chosen to go today, because there was a spring tide high enough to fill the Wash and drive all the waders off the mud flats. This was almost more exciting than the geese, as groups of knot whisked up into the air and headed to the safety of the brackish lagoons, passing low overhead with a rush of wings. When they finally roosted they were all huddled together and looked almost like a neatly cobbled pathway.Clouds of oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits also added to the drama, the latter forming ever shifting aerial displays over the water.

We returned to the car about half-past nine, having had the bonus of an excellent view of a red-breasted merganser, and then went off in search of a hearty breakfast. This proved much harder to find than the birds, but we ended up in the cafe at Hunstanton Lighthouse car-park, where the friendly staff served us a humongous full English. Their wood-burning stove also gave us a chance to warm up after standing for a couple of hours in a brisk north-westerly wind.

We considered going home at that point, but it was such a glorious day that we decided to carry on and have a walk at Holme Dunes, where we had incredibly clear and close views of about twenty snow buntings, busily feeding on seed in the strand line. I was feeling pretty tired by the time we got back, but still couldn't tear myself away, so we had one last visit to Titchwell where there were large flocks of dark-bellied Brent geese, avocets, bar-tailed godwits and twite. The only species that eluded me (as ever) was bearded tits!

The light was perfect, and I'm afraid Chris and I took far too many photographs - Pete came away with just the memories!!