Spoonies

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a little boy who begged his mum for "The Observer's Book Of Birds". Now in that book was a bird of fantasy and fable which was pure white and stood on long, spindly black legs. Even more unbelievably this bird had a long beak shaped just like a spoon. Well, anyone would want to see a bird like that, but everything the boy read told him that you were very unlikely to ever see one and, even worse, there would soon be none left anywhere in England.

Until the last few years, for Spoonbills have started to come regularly to our shores once again. Of course it's just my luck that most of the time they hide that remarkable bill underneath their wing and just mockingly observe you through one half-open eye.

But not all the time! I have seen Spoonbills on the coast, but having them here in the Fens is still something of a novelty. And so it was, encouraged by recent sightings of the birds posted on-line, that my brother and I made our way up to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's reserve at Welney, just over the county boundary in Norfolk.

The birds soon became unusually active with a lot of chasing going on.

If you look closely you should be able to see that, while the bird in front has a dark bill with a yellow tip, those of the three in pursuit are lighter coloured. And that's because they are this year's chicks. Nobody knows (or at least nobody is saying) where they bred but if it's near here then it's very exciting news indeed.

Over three hundred years ago they were common birds in this country, but they disappeared rapidly after the Fens and other wetland areas were drained for agriculture. A few turned up here every autumn but none stayed very long. Then in the last couple of decades they've quietly increased in number, though the breeding population here is still very small with the RSPB estimating as few as 0 to 4 pairs breeding annually in the UK.

Mother, or is it father, began to get annoyed with the constant pester-power of the youngsters.

In Europe they are not rare at all, but it's heartening to see the gradual return of water birds to our countryside at a time when many other species are in decline. It's easy to say that it's the result of global warming but it must also be partly because of the increase in the number of wetland conservation projects.

And this is the curious way that a Spoonbill feeds, by walking, or even running, in shallow water waving its beak from side to side. It looks faintly ludicrous but it seems to work! And there was also another bird which made a distant appearance....

I apologise for the quality of the picture but they were really distant. These are Cranes, another bird which is on the increase in recent years.

Take care.