The front with all the rain had passed through, a brisk wind was blowing from the North West, the sky was blue and the sun was out! Wonderful conditions for a walk along the beach at East head.
The visibility was excellent with outstanding views over to Culver Down on the Isle of Wight for the first time in quite a while. Interesting time for shipping, a drilling rig and what looked like a cable ship had joined the usual cross channel ferries.
The high tides of the previous few days had left their mark, the strand line was right up against the dunes that had a cliff like edge where the sea had washed them away. Strangely the beach was devoid of birdlife, no sanderlings on the surf line, nothing even in flight.
Heading over the dunes to see if there was anything there I was struck by how much standing water there was. Usually it’s a dry as a bone, certainly in summer, now there were some quite marshy areas. Perhaps these are like the Lavant, they’re seasonal.
As we made our way back along the lagoon side it looked like being quiet as well. Fortunately a deceit of Lapwings flew into view with their square wings flapping. They came quite close by, acting
like a cloud of Dunlin or Knots twisting and turning in synchronism showing off their dark upper wings then their light undersides. They dropped down on the mud and stayed there, quite happy, over 40 Lapwings together in total.