Having missed our morning fix of a walk around the harbour for the past two days it was time to get back on track and in touch with wildfowl again. What better way is there than to take the walk from East Head along the coast to Ella Nore then back via the lane, past the church and along Coast Guard Cottages.

High tide was at 08:50, and quite high at 4.1m; we set out at 08:30 just before high water. The stretch between East head and the path was completely covered, even the banks were submerged. Surprisingly the only life on this huge stretch of water were Brent Geese, apart from a couple of Oyster Catchers and a solitary Curlew, nothing else. They made up for it in numbers though, hundreds of them stretched out along the length of the coast. It appeared that they preferred to sit there together  rather than on the adjacent fields, maybe they’d had enough to eat and just wanted to be sociable. It only changed in the bay at the end of Ella More Lane where just a few Shelduck mixed in with the Brent.

On the other side of the path, however, it was so different in the network of ponds. These cover quite a considerable area and are relatively protected, they’re know as Snow Hill for some reason. There were plenty of Mallard, Wigeon and Teal all quite vocal. On the almost submerged banks were lots of Lapwings silhouetted against the sun, which was just starting to emerge, with the plumage on their heads clearly visible.

The fields were empty when we arrived, but the time we left a few skeins of Brent were starting to land. Perhaps they’d realised High water had passed and it was time to get back to business.