I had an interesting encounter yesterday, when I left home I wasn’t sure of my prospects, the tide was almost full which is good really because it forces the waders closer to shore , whereas at low tide birds will be feeding and usually out on the Estuary mud flats. Well firstly as I approached Cockwood inner harbour I noticed, and photographed the Black-tailed Godwits seen below. That would have made a good day but it just continued to get better and better. I like to sit on the wall outside the harbour on the sea side at high tide because it is so peaceful and quiet. You cant get there by crawling under the rail bridge and squeezing through at one point so most people will not know about it. I thought I might see the Kingfisher again, which I did by the way, in fact the best view ever with the sun on it’s back and flying in front of me and then down the Estuary. It was like a jewel with really vivid colours. I had been there just 10 seconds when literally feet from me a Razorbill popped up like a little penguin. He could have been a she …….. but it was definitely a juvenile bird. You can tell that by the absence of a white vertical stripe on the bill. He was really fishing hard and even though he was just feet from me it was really hard to get a shot of him because he was diving almost immediately he had surfaced. I took 5 photos of him, one was absolutely no good but the others are reasonable. They could have been better but I wasn’t ready and the light was bad. I was balancing the camera on the uneven rocky wall and trying to predict where it would appear next. It seemed to be fishing as close to the wall as it could get. I think this was because he was trapping the fish, probably sandeel or very young bass or mullet up against the wall.

I have left this image small but just click on it to see a large version.
When he faced me he looked very interesting with his little tail cocked up and the water on his back like globules.

Then of course there was the Ringed Plover below. They were putting on quite a show and were flying out in to the Estuary and swooping around with a few Dunlin amomgst them. Everytime the intercity train came past they would take to the air which gave me a big chance to predict when they would fly.