Six of us joined the Friends’ 08.30 Walk beneath a pure blue sky full of lark song. Swallows streamed across the salt marsh where the dazzling low sun raked rusty samphire and glaucous purslane while silhouetted Avocets swept the shallow pools.

As the Swallows are leaving, other birds arrive: Four Blackbirds could have been arrivals (especially one flying high over the village) and we saw about ten Stonechats around Flat Beach.

On Salt Pool, just beyond grazing Wigeon sat a solitary Brent Goose, but our attention was directed more towards the spectacle of 2 Kingfishers which often hovered for several seconds at a time, their backs flashing in the sunshine.

It’s always fun to estimate, then try counting, the long line of Cormorants roosting on Ternery Pool; the results vary but come out at around 350.

A last departing Wheatear consorted with Linnets among silvery grasses on the shingle, a vanguard of Golden Plovers could be heard piping and the first Rock Pipit of winter squeaked over the Discovery Centre.