I went to one of my old favourite places at the weekend. I say ‘old’ because there was one time that every opportunity I had I was there especially at this time of year.
RThat place is the Outstrays at Patrington haven. When it was first completed it was a superb place to photograph wading birds at close quarters. Over time the lagoon has silted up and as such the whole place is now covered in grasses which whist creating a new saltmarsh habitat, has rendered it all but useless for the wading birds.
There is however a clear bit at the end and it was here that I headedd at the weekend.
My target was wading birds in flight and regular readers of this blog will know that I normally favour Spurn and Kilnsea for these type of photos.
However I fancied a change and everything was aligned, the time of year (early Autumn is usually best for wader passage). High tide coincided with sunrise, hopefully some birds would be there.
I took up my position around 6.15 and by 6.30 I was taking photos in gorgeous light of common waders in close proximity.
Mainly dunlin and ringed plover but some nice knot, bar-tailed godwits and curlews added some interest and the star of the show-a juvenile curlew-sandpiper.
I had around 2 hours before the tide started to recede and by then the sun was up so the good light had gone.
On my second trip, the tide was higher (7.6m as opposed to 7.06m a couple. of days before. This must have been the highest tide of the summer as it provided hundreds of gulls with a feeding frenzy of all of the small mammals that had built up over the summer. The raw brutality of nature was there for all to see.
I’ll certainly be giving it a go there again in the not too distant future.
