After 4 long days working in Belgium, and two further days catching up with work after I got home the 26th Feb was always pencilled in as an opportunity to unwind.

I'd heard about a Spoonbill, Black Necked Grebe, and Icelandic Gull being on the reserve.

The sun shone on Saturday morning, so we were off with binoculars and scope straight after breakfast.

51 species later we came home very happy, having kept reasonably warm and mud free.

We missed the gull, saw the other key species and particularly enjoyed watching Little Grebe, Snipe and Knot.

I'm glad we had a walk along the beach too, it feels SO BIG and LIBERATING to walk on acres of seashore sand, with blue skies and sunshine.