I collected Ulf and Alison, Ian and Lainey and Leigh and Paul from Newbiggin and we set off for an afternoon and evening around Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland…

Little Egrets were darting at small fish in the shallows as Mute Swans and Canada Geese got out of the way of two paddle-boarders who were making their Sunday afternoon leisure activity look like awfully hard work 😉 A Kingfisher flew by and settled briefly on a tangle of fallen branches before plunging into the river and reemerging and vanishing into denser vegetation on the river bank. A second Kingfisher perched on a post in front of us, Snipe, Dunlin, Curlew, Redshank and Lapwing were roosting on exposed mud, a Harbour Porpoise was feeding just offshore as we had our picnic stop overlooking the North Sea and as dusk closed in quickly a Marsh Harrier flushed roosting Starlings from a reedbed, a murmuration developed, a Water Rail darted across the gap between reedbeds and the high yapping calls of Pink-footed Geese coming to roost continued beyond the point where it was too dark to see them against the steely grey sky.