At the end of November, high pressure settled over the Baltic. In Riga and Helsinki the thermometer settled at -8°C; nighttime temperatures in St Petersburg were -10°C. Cold weather in northern Europe has knock-on effects here. In Essex, quite suddenly, great skeins of brent geese darkened the sky and grazed on winter drill by the thousand. Knots swirled over the estuary like snow. Best of all was the arrival of wigeon.
One morning the tideline seemed to be black with the gregarious little dabblers. The purrs of the ducks and whistles of the drakes rang out across the saltings. It was raining hard and splashes were beginning to form on low-lying arable land. I knew the birds wouldn’t hold for long and the chance for a foreshore flight would be gone.
“Great skeins of
