After picking up some of the excellent Westbourne Bakery bread from Southbourne farm shop we parked at Nutbourne Farm to walk around to Prinstead and back along the inland path.
The splashes in the field between the path and the reed beds were still there, clearly the ground is not draining well. Over the hedge a cacophony of sound greeted us, it’s a popular place for duck. The Mallard were especially noisy, not quite sure why as we couldn’t see them well as they stayed close to the reeds.
The most memorable was the thrip-thrip of the teal, such a pleasant tone from so diminutive duck. They were out on the water in small groups, quite sedate compared with the raucous Mallard. There’s not many places where you can hear teal being so vocal, this is one of the best in the harbour.
With the tide well out there was plenty of life in the estuary; among the usual inhabitants were a sole Godwit scanning the mud for something tasty and few Sanderlings dancing along the edge of the water. Near Prinstead, looking back towards the reserve area, I could just make out some predominantly white birds with a bit of black on them; could they be Avocets? A subsequent conversation at Southbourne Farm Shop showed that they were, about 20 had dropped in that day.