A gentle autumn glow saturated the RSPB’s wetland reserve at Cors Ddyga, illuminating the rushes and reeds, and sparkling the pools that were excavated just a few weeks ago. Perhaps “scrapes” would be a better word to describe these slivers of liquid light, their margins still mottled dark with freshly turned mud and root, harbouring long-buried organic treasure, waiting to be snatched.
And daylight robbers there were aplenty – hundreds of them, picking, probing, sieving – gleaning soft bodied prizes from the shallows and soft turf. Teals zipped this way and that in frantic fashion, while redshanks demonstrated a pacy but ordered pick-and-go routine. Black-tailed godwits stalked, knee-deep in open water, whickering to one another as much as feasting.
