Time and tide .......

A grey Saturday morning at Severn Beach to catch the high tide. At first there were no waders on the shore, and only a very few small flocks flying past. I backed off for a little while and on coming back a small group of dunlin and ringed plover had come down. Once down they seemed quite settled, and I could work my way closer. Sorry again for the light and the 'lifeless' eyes that result, but I haven't yet found a magic sunshine programme. It did brighten up later, but it's no good when the birds are miles away, is it?The dunlin especially just tuck in to sleep at the height of the tide, but as the water recedes (and it goes down fast here) the birds wake up and then start to feed - crude timeline shown below. The dunlin are well into transitional plumage now.
There were a couple of wheatear around, but as usual I found them hard to approach - near enough for a photo, anyway. Annoyingly one came to have a look when I was full length on the beach, but it was so far to my right I'd have scared it and everything else off by trying to turn for a snap, so you'll have to make do with this record shot from later on.

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'latest' album - the slideshow gives best views.