A few weeks ago when my niece invited me down to see “the spectacular” I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. But then I looked it up and saw that the RSPB at Snettisham were advertising this event when only a few times a year exceptionally high tides force tens of thousands of waders to simultaneously fly up from the estuary and land all tightly packed together in nearby lagoons. We got up at 4.30am to travel to the Wash and join other avid birdwatchers to witness this spectacle an hour before high tide at just after 7am. It was raining and the light was poor but it was indeed a spectacular sight to witness.
Most of the birds were knot, which had recently migrated to the Wash from Arctic regions. However there were also thousands of oystercatchers, godwits and other waders too. The birds crammed into every available space on gravel beds in the lagoons behind the shoreline. What an incredible sight!
Then after about two hours they started to fly up in huge packs, hundreds and thousands at a time! I photographed some of the masses taking off. But then I went to sit on the shore facing the sea as clouds of birds rustled low over our heads to return to the estuary flats.
We were calling this the “reverse spectacular”. You can just see the tops of people’s heads who are standing on the shore watching the birds return to the sea.
The following day was another chance to see this phenomenon, and I’ve seen much better photographs where the birds are shining white with the morning sunlight. However I’m thrilled with what I was privileged to see. If you google “Snettisham Wader Spectacular Samuel West” you can watch it and feel a sense of awe too.
