by Sally Westwood

I heard the Little Egret’s¹ alarm call before I saw it. It flew along the River Deben, against the ebbing tide. It landed at the end of a wide gully, with drenched, smooth mudflats steeped up at the sides. An Avocet² had been walking away from the gully, along the receding shoreline, sweeping its upturned, black bill from side to side in shallow water searching for food, such as crustaceans and worms. It turned when it heard the Little Egret’s alarm, watched it land and strode rapidly towards it, determinedly. The Little Egret tucked its beak down in its chest, oblivious, neck arched round, and down, cleaning feathers on its chest. Short damp feathers on its crown were upright and spiky.

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by Sally Westwood

A walk along the bank of the River Deben can be interesting whatever the weather. The birds are there, going about their business, searching for food, and perhaps squabbling and arguing about temporary feeding territory. I had a walk along the riverbank towards Wilford Bridge from the direction of Woodbridge, to see what birds were about. The tide was coming in. The weather was bright and sunny. I immediately spotted two huge flocks of Lapwings (Vanellus vanillas) swirling around in the sky. Commonly, Lapwings flock together in the winter months on marshes (Svensson, 2009). They can be identified by their white and black rounded wing-tips showing dark above and white below, moving in a flapping motion. Close up views when stationary, reveal a long thin, wispy head-crest. The winter plumage shows a scaly pattern on their dark upper parts and coverts. This contrasts with their summer plumage, which has a beautiful purple and green iridescence. As they turned, I could see the flickering of the black and white of their wings.

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