We're conducting two parallel surveys on the Humber throughout the winter, one on the North bank and one on the South - which, despite being mutually visible and just a few minutes away from each other as the godwit flies, are many miles apart if you're a terrestrially dependent human, and offer up considerable contrasts from an ornithological perspective.
A perk of the work (and indeed of this kind of estuary-based, wader-heavy birding in general) is the spectacle of swirling flocks changing feeding positions, coming into roost, or getting spooked by a patrolling Peregrine or Merlin. The dynamic is constantly changing, with the dense congregations of godwits last month (see here) upstaged by various other species during November, which will no doubt change again as the season wears on.
Pictured (from the top) are Avocets, Pink-footed Geese, Lapwings and Golden Plover, particularly evocative against what can be a pretty bleak, industrial landscape; counting such impressive numbers of shorebirds is far from bleak, however, and keeps the cold at bay no matter how long the days can be....
