A treat today to be walking in the last light and west winds at the shore near St Ismael, the tide right in and the sea near a teal or duck egg blue, strangely full of light under the mist and soft drizzle blowing in.
Estuary birds flying up from the sea edge as we approached: sanderlings, lapwings, geese, and oyster-catchers. The sanderlings first and fastest, appearing suddenly from out of invisibility and flying in groups parallel to the shore, circling and banking sharply, changing dark to light to dark as they turned. And seen against the green sea, silvery grey and beautiful. The lapwings, easier to trace in the low light, larger and dark across their backs, wings flapping slowly and a looser, loopy tumbling flight, full of grace.
And lapwings inland too, lifting off from the fields and crossing above us as we took the steep donkey track back up the hill to Llansaint, into the closing dark.
sian barlow 