The high tide on the Wash at dusk on the 1st March before the ‘big spring’ the next morning occurs on a quiet, still evening. At Snettisham Beach, a mile north of the old gravel pits, the oystercatchers come down the water’s edge in a constant procession of small flocks that fly just over the surface backlit by a golden sunset; these then gather into larger flocks on the last of the exposed mud before breaking up and moving down again. The black-tailed godwits come straight down in huge flocks further out over the water. As the tide rushes over the last of the exposed mud in a matter of seconds, the waders flocks, swirl in the distance to the south creating elegant patterns in the sky.

At dawn the next day, the ‘big spring’ draws a crowd. As the waters rise, all the wader flocks get pushed into a corner of the saltmarsh where the godwits sit or fly it out; some of the knots and oystercatchers decamp to the sanctuary of the pits; and the avocets swim in a tight raft. The most impressive are the huge flocks of knots and godwits that gather over the saltmarshes and flooded mudflats; they turn and turn again as a whole and the morning sun catches their wings in flashes of golden white.