Avocets

Sunday 23rd January

Day 277

‘Let’s go for a walk.’

‘It’s too cold, it’s too late now. It’ll be dark soon.’

We set off anyway down to the estuary in the fading light. The dank air stings my cheeks, seeps through my gloves. We stop at a gap in the hedge to look at the birds. I can’t believe it when I see them. My first Avocets. Seven of them, wading in the shallows, dipping their long up-curved beaks, slender as new moons, into the reeds. I wonder how their needle thin legs can hold up the black and white prayer hands of their bodies as they jerk along in the water. I feel I’m a witness to a rare and precious thing here. These birds are on the conservation amber list - danger - could be wiped out. We nearly lost them before - but they came back in the 1940s. Wild and protected, breeding in safe places now. Thank you RSPB.

Rounding the corner we catch the sun,butternut orange, posting itself into the money box slot of a silver cloud, leaving a bright smear of gold on the sleek estuary mud. And to think I might have missed it all. Must remember it's never too late to seize the day.