Why the long beak?

We took Polly for a walk around Bosham harbour this morning, followed by lunch at the craft centre. She was, once again, a very good girl. The tide was out when we arrived and there were lots of gulls and wading birds around, including several egrets (see Extras) and this curlew. We were able to cross the causeway on our way out but the tide has started to come in by the time we returned so we had to take the longer route back. The good news is, Mr DA's Achilles tendonitis has improved to such an extent that he was okay for the three miles or so that we walked and was only really bothered by the referred pain (in his buttock). Hopefully this means we will soon be back to proper rambling again.

PS - I was wrong about the snakefly the other day. Someone on Flickr has pointed out to me that it was in fact a parasitic wasp called Gasteruption jaculator!