overheard on a saltmarsh

Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?
Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?
Give them me.
No.
Give them me. Give them me.
No . . .

(Harold Monroe)


I remember learning this poem at school and I found it very haunting then, and still do. It came back to me today as we sat in a hide watching lots of birds on the saltmarshes of Morecambe Bay.

We went to Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve, mainly to buy Gordon a telescope for Christmas. We were successful and spent more than we had spent on me at the Apple Store on Monday. There’s a first!

We wandered round the Reserve for a bit. This was where sheilwill was on Sunday. Then the place was quite busy apparently. Today it was very quiet indeed. However, we were unsuccessful in seeing the Bitterns and Bearded Tits that have been spotted around. Neither did we see the Deer or the Otters. Too late in the day for most of these and too early for the Starlings.

So we went on to the Hides by the Saltmarshes and watched lots of wading birds feeding in the lagoons. Not a brilliant picture of a Redshank, as it was moving very quickly and I was at the limit of my lens. I had much better pictures of a very tame Robin that had followed us around earlier in the day, but we enjoyed watching the wading birds, so this is the choice.