AWARDS: ENGLAND / WILTSHIRE / LAKE DISTRICT / WALES / SCOTLAND / COAST OF S.W. ENGLAND / COAST / STORMS / LAKES & MOUNTAINS / WINTER LANDSCAPES / DESERTS / ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY / BRITISH BIRDS 1 / BRITISH BIRDS 2 / BRITISH MAMMALS / BRITISH INSECTS / WORLD BIRDS / WORLD MAMMALS / NATURE
KNOT LEAVING HIGH TIDE ROOST
Some 50,000 knot spend autumn on the mudflats at Snettisham in Norfolk. High spring tides cover the whole mudflat, forcing the birds to leave the shore to roost around the margins of a nearby lagoon. Taking their Latin name Calidris canutus from King Canute, the knot try to defy the rising tide and wait until the last patch of mud is inundated. Just after dawn has broken they take off in a succession of great flocks. Equally spectacular is the tightly packed huddle of birds at their high tide roost. I waited a couple of hours until the tide was falling and somehow the knot knew the mudflats were exposed again. They took to the air as one, a flock so dense that no chink of sky can be seen between the birds. Imagine making this image into a knot jigsaw.
F/5.6, 1/1000th second, ISO 400
Accepted: The Wild (Bulgaria) 2014, Smethwick 2014
