Oh, I do like...

Managed to pin down my brother for a walk. He suggested that "rather than go to some woods as we normally do" (we have done this before a grand total of once) we go to a coastal wildlife reserve instead. 

I was definitely up for a little birdwatching. To be honest, I would have been happy with anywhere just to get to spend some time with my brother in between his busy social life. 

We went on a lovely muddy walk around this estuary nature reserve and saw many cool birds:
Redshanks, whimbrels, sandpipers, a kestrel, oystercatchers, a kingfisher catching fish under a bridge, a little egret, cormorants, shovellers and teals, plus many of the more common birds that I see elsewhere. 

We spent hours walking and talking, and at the end got chatting to the volunteers running the show. They mentioned that a nearby spring is Victorian in origin and people come for miles just to gather water from it. We had to try the water, of course - it was beautifully smooth, lacking a lot of the minerally taste we get around here.