Surrealism

High summer is always a bit flaky on the marsh, especially when the sun comes out – a rare event this year that left corvids gasping today.

A quick look out from the Junction Pool corner could only be described as weird.

I still can’t get used to feral Black Swans and their brood, but there they were, bringing down the class of a lovely sooty spangly adult Spotted Redshank darting about in the flooded vegetation and a few Ruff in full breeding splendour.

Quackers were starting to look scruffy, apart from the Red Breasted Goose, reappearing, in fine fettle and apparently quite happy, with a small family group of Canadas.

Its limp is just about gone now, but it still feels plastic.

Three adult Med Gulls on the Junction Pool raised standards a bit, but it was a rum old mix of species, fence jumpers and wild, out there today.

The Sandplant Lagoon was feral soup with a dash of adult Spoonbill, and a single Dunlin dropped in to join the LRPs and other summer residents.

Blackcap and Cetti’s still singing and what looked like an early Brown Hawker whizzed past as I basked in the sun.

Stacks of Redshank today.