Knot for the faint-hearted

The alarm was set for 4.45am this morning to get to Snettisham in Norfolk for dawn. At high tide the shorebirds move in great flocks for a reason I should be able to provide some biological explanation for.

Alongside the bracing North Sea we saw thousands of knot huddled together, groups of oystercatchers doing aerial acrobatics and great skeins of pink-footed geese flying overhead (above). The cutest bird was a turnstone, literally just furtling about and turning stones over. They were ever so helpful when they named these birds.

Observing twitchers in their natural environment is a fun activity - tutting if the bird hide door is left to slam and chuntering if someone's telescope obstructs the gangway. Tell me if I get like that...