Sunday 18th February

The jackdaw tree was occupied by several pairs of birds, but there was not much else around - apart from the usual group of Sunday 'birders'! The tide was going out and a little bit of mud was exposed. Then a pair of mallard flew low over the water up river, then a cormorant flew down river, then four flew up high and towards the floating harbour. The birders announced they had seen a peregrine over Leigh Woods, and I managed to see a lone bird, so high it eventually disappeared into the mist. Just before I left I saw two redshank down on the mud, their identity given away by the white flash of the feathers at the back edge of their wings.{they are the only British wader with a broad white bar across the trailing edge of the wing.} When I looked again, they had gone.