Monday 3rd October (A Windy Day on The Dee Estuary)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into another blue sunny where four mistle thrushes flew towards The Dee Estuary. Soon Mr. Kite and His Lady were sitting on a bench overlooking the mud, sand and peebles of the vast flat Dee Estuary where the tide was ebbing just before flowing back to fill the area with sea.

Now at this quiet time the thousands of oystercatchers sat on the land taking occasionally to the air to make a black flock of birds and then a white flock of birds. Gulls sat near the muscle fishermen walking to pick up some scraps that had emerged from the sand. Flocks of common redshank, lapwings, and knot flew around stopping to feed on the shallow waters edge.

Mr. Kite had come to listen to the sounds of the estuary. The loud piping 'kleep' of the oystercatchers; the 'cour loo' shrill of the curlews; the yelping 'tyuuuu' of the common sandpipers; the melancholy 'pee wee' of the lapwings; and the gulls.

With thousands of gulls Mr. Kite watched and listened to the grating 'kwarr' of the black-headed gulls; the nasal squealing of the common gulls; the barking 'kau kau kau' of the herring gulls; the 'rru rru rru' of the lesser black-backed gull; and finally the much less common deep, masculine throaty bark of the greater black-backed gulls.

Then the ebbing tide turned to a flowing tide and mud flats began to shrink. The flowing water crept into gullies and the narrow shallow streams of water changed direction and wood and weeds began to flow inland. The waders took to the air and flew to the higher marshy ground; the oystercatchers joined the waders; the gulls just sat about before the water eventually reached them and carried them floating away towards Chester. Now the shelducks did a bit of each; some flew inland and other waited for the flowing tide to unbeach them. And the muscle fishermen took to their inflatables so that they could unload their catch onto lorries parked by the rising waters edge near their vehicles.

Just in time the vehicles left the sand before the water filled the estuary leaving gulls floating, flocks of waders flying and Mr. Kite and His Lady happy in the strengthening wind. With the sun shining Mr. Kite and His Lady returned to The Joint for a cuppa of Tetley tea. Cheers.