Sun 03/09/17

While the whole family was blackberrying at Cliffe Pools this evening, I spotted some familiar-looking white waders out in the distant shallows. Spoonbills again! They have a very distinctive way of striding along their territory, waving those outsize bills from side to side in the mud. Once seen, never forgotten I would guess. I’m still slightly surprised to see them; I knew they appeared sometimes as an exotic, spotted by dedicated birders in warm cagoules, but I never expected to find them wandering about loose near my home town. I felt the same way when I first saw little egrets, which are now a dime a dozen outside the factory grounds.