Knot murmuration

Today Chris and I finished the last of our surveys of The Wash. This area is difficult to access, being owned by the Crown Estate, but eventually I managed to contact the agent who was happy to lend us keys to get into this very private corner of Norfolk. Unfortunately, their office was in the middle of Kings Lynn and it took us nearly 45 minutes to crawl our way into the town thanks to a set of roadworks and a grid-locked roundabout.

Once we had the keys everything was a lot more straightforward, though the weather forecast which had predicted a dry day earlier in the week, was categorically wrong, and there were frequent heavy showers. Although these were uncomfortable to work in, the conditions provided some interesting lighting, including four rainbows!

The secluded nature of the site meant that it supported plenty of birds, including a huge flock of Fieldfare, freshly arrived from Scandinavia, who were busy feeding on a ploughed field. Another field had a large flock of Golden Plover, while a sizable group of Brent Geese were grazing on the saltmarsh. 

After we'd handed back the keys, Chris and I headed to Snettisham RSPB reserve for the high tide wader spectacular. Sadly the Knot didn't come into the borrow pits as normal, but there were some amazing wader murmurations as the tide came in. The sound of thousands of Knot taking off synchronously was thrilling. The weather was challenging, but produced some wonderful lighting conditions. A number of my photographs were taken 'blind' as I had to remove my glasses in the heavy rain but fortunately my equipment all survived the downpour! The long walk back to the car was undertaken in almost total darkness, and I was very cold and damp, but it was all worth it for an experience that I'll treasure for ever.