However, throughout November and December, early morning sightings of larger water birds ranged up to a dozen, with anything up to a score of smaller and shyer water fowl making their appearance.
This morning my four-legged friends stayed close to me as a flock of 50-odd birds took to the sky as we followed one of our regular routes along the river.
We can get about 30 meters from them before they take fright and hop ahead, a big change from the days when it was just a handful of less jumpy birds who would only move if the dogs moved too fast.
The river itself seemed to disappear overnight. One evening the grey heron was standing in water 30 centimeters deep; the next morning he was squelching his toes in the mud on the exposed bottom.Had it been drained upriver by the authorities, had it succumbed to some obscure weather pattern somewhere in the world or had the increasing bird population drunk it dry?
Whatever the reason, I can now see fish squirming around actually between the legs of the herons, egrets, bitterns, water hens and crakes (I'm just guessing with the last of these birds), and I must check the route ahead to make sure no smelly fish has been left on the dogs' sniffing route by some surfeited big bird who has dropped his fish supper as being too small to bother with.Georgina Noyce is an equestrian judge, and has a menagerie of adopted four-legged waifs and strays.
gnoyce2009@gmail.com
