Trials and tribulations

I am in turmoil at the moment because my renewed AFCD / Police permit has been caught in a Kafkaesque bureaucratic circle and I am without. This means I cannot (legally) go to the mudflats in the frontier closed area. Fortunately WWF gave me a temporary one yesterday but this involves considerable hassle and goodwill on their part. Thank you Bena!

At 7.30am yesterday, Mrs H having made me brekkie at 5.30am, I was already in the hide. Not much to see. Two bags of old jumble stuck on posts a long way out. Ah yes! Those would be Ospreys. It is grey, overcast and only the sound of wind and curlews reaches the hide. Off to my right a gaudy Black-capped kingfisher sits on a branch at the edge of the mangroves. Too far away to contemplate a photo.

Out of the mist 3 Grey herons emerge. Large, flappy pterodactyls with not a lot to do and in no hurry to do it. A Swallow skips past the hide, chipping away quietly. The hide begins to fill up. Lots of (very good) local bird photographers. They have their breakfast rather too noisily for my liking but the birds are still distant. No harm done. The sunshine is squeezing though the clouds. It is a tight fit but a Little egret gets a luke warm dousing of golden light. An Eastern marsh harrier quarters across the mudflats. Distant ducks panic. Wigeon and Shoveler mostly. At 8.06 the gulls are within view and at 8.10 they start to stream in. The action starts.......