Sunday Mirror

Golden days at a sewage farm

- FOLLOW STUART ON TWITTER: @BIRDERMAN

Realising school summer holidays are coming to an end is one of the gloomiest things about growing up.

Most teenagers face being fitted out with uniforms for a new term with hangdog looks and moody insolence.

But for me, the seasonal changes as summer turned into autumn were always something to savour – albeit accompanie­d by a pungent odour.

It brings back memories of holiday adventures, sneaking into the local sewage farm to catch sight of migrating sandpipers.

High fences and barbed wire were no barrier to my gang of young birders, keen to see species more associated with the coast than the heart of the Home Counties.

Old-fashioned waterworks were lifelines for birds migrating from their Arctic nesting grounds to warmer climes.

They would fall from the sky and then pitter patter on the crusty surface of settling beds to pick at the invertebra­tes, fuel for their long flights south.

The last weeks of August created a kaleidosco­pe of long-legged, long-billed waders, many still in the remnants of their bright spring breeding finery.

Curlew sandpipers in shades of brick red, a camouflage colour perfect for nesting on rocky tundra landscapes, shone out alongside flocks of dingier dunlin and little stints tiptoeing on pools of oily, rank water.

Warbler song had long been silenced but the skies were chiming with the lilting whistles of curlew, grey plovers and greenshank as they circled overhead before flying down to feed.

On a good day, a count of a dozen or so waders could be tallied, sometimes with exciting rarities thrown into the mix.

One of our best discoverie­s was a pectoral sandpiper from the Americas that had somehow made it across the Atlantic.

These days my late summer wader encounters no longer require the acts of trespass they used to.

The brilliant nature reserves dotted along the North Norfolk coast make perfect venues for birds to rest over on their long journeys, with the promise of great finds such as the western sandpiper and Pacific golden plover spotted in recent weeks.

High fences and barbed wire were no barrier to my gang of birders

 ??  ?? BLENDING in Curlew
BLENDING in Curlew

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