On a bright day the high tide has flooded the saltmarshes, the wind is quiet and the waterbirds wait for the water to drop; a black-headed gull finds the tip of a rock and claims it, waits and then finally drops on to the exposed causeway to Northey Island. Turnstones arrive and work the seaweed-covered rocks for invertebrates. A handful of redshanks fly to the exposed mud and curlews lift from the saltmarsh. A small, bright white flock of avocet flies up the estuary to a favourite island close to Maldon, where hundreds of redshank are tucked up on the saltmarsh banks and teal huddle and swim in the muddy gullies.
Heybridge Basin at high tide 
Black-headed gull 
Settled at high water 
The tide running out 
The tide dropping further 
Teal over the saltmarsh 
Teal over the saltmarsh 
Avocet flock and herring gulls on the mud and roosting redshank on the saltmarsh
At low tide, a harsh northerly blows across the estuary, the great expanses of soft mud are empty of birds. Small flocks of teal with a handful of wigeon roost in the lee of deep, sandy gullies and curlew and redshank shelter in the saltmarsh. There are a handful of shelduck but no Brent geese yet. Under the blanket of grey sky, a single red kite floats along the sea wall like a harrier before veering across the flat land of fallow fields and farms.
Heybridge Basin at low tide 
Barges and smack 
Blackwater at low tide 
Steel-hulled Thames sailing barge ‘Blue Mermaid’ 
Three barges on the Blackwater 
Freshwater marsh next to the Blackwater
Teal and wigeon flock 
Wheeling teal and wigeon 
Teal and wigeon dropping into a gully
