Bay Birds

It's a few months since Gus and I last visited Jack Scout, overlooking the vast mud and waterscape of Morecambe Bay. As the sun was falling, the tide was rising, the layering of the mudflats was imperceptibly giving way to water, the jagged edges of the little creek were soon submerged. This is a landscape that is ever changing, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.

The hides of Leighton Moss nearby are populated by sedentary photographers with huge camera lenses taking shots of birds in which the detail of every feather can be seen. I prefer big landscapes in which the birds are small details that draw the eye. Standing at Jack Scout, looking into the Bay, there were no other photographers.  Here in the centre we have a heron, in the foreground a curlew, in between a huddle of redshanks. Somewhere out there, more distant, there were eider ducks with that Oooohh call that for those of us of a certain age, evokes Frankie Howard. Also unseen were wigeons, our very own whistling ducks.