Turnstone: 'Does What It Says On The Tin'

Avocet - photograph by Jo Sinclair

I got snap-happy with an avocet at the weekend on a trip to North Norfolk. This bird is the RSPB's logo and represents the conservation success stories at the heart of the charity's work. I was happy to find myself very casually photographing one as I walked along the tidal creeks at Brancaster Staithe; the UK population was nurtured back to health from just 4 pairs in the 1940s. Today's statistic is a healthier 1,400 breeding pairs.

I've lived inland all my life so a trip to the coast with its multitude of wings and burbling calls is like going on safari. Not all of the birds flew away whooping hysterically. Walking along a busy footpath at Sunday lunchtime I got close enough to photograph some of the waders and study their idiosyncratic ways with worms and molluscs. Their bills, of various length and shape, are perfectly designed to sift the mud. The avocet swept its very fine upcurved bill sideways through the water as it strode elegantly along. A black-tailed godwit probed and prodded. Stamping and paddling the deep mud, it flapped and pranced in its haste to catch whatever it disturbed. By the fish sheds tame turnstones picked over shells in the oyster and mussel beds.

Black-Tailed Godwit - photograph by Jo Sinclair

The trouble with photographing things is that you tend not to 'experience' them if you're squinting through a lens, but it's a helpful way to I-D them later. I had a special experience on the hottest day of the year so far (19 degrees, and not a whisper of cold wind all day). As we foraged along Brancaster beach a woman tipped us off that there were seals in the inlet round the corner. A family got there just before me and sat down in front of what I could just make out were four bobbing heads in the water. One of the kids was throwing a frisbee for their dog, but it was a tranquil scene, and the seals were curious. They stayed submerged at first then grew more confident, drifting up and down between me and the family to check us out. They stared at us and put their heads in the air and sniffed. My dog sat fascinated at my side.

After a while the seals (cute, round-headed common seals) got boisterous, charging after each other, thrashing flippers and tails. I was waiting for a little egret to step into the lowering sun for a photograph, but a seal charged at it and saw it off.

Common seal - photograph by Jo Sinclair

Common seal - photograph by Jo Sinclair