As I drove west on the coast road the other day I saw something white out on the marshes. It wasn’t the sparkling white of an egret and I suspected it may be a Spoonbill. They have a duller, not as bright, plumage about them.
It had the look of a roosting bird; one of our returning breeders perhaps. It took all of 60 seconds to stop and exit the vehicle to discover I was looking at a plastic bag; albeit a very avianly shaped one. I climbed back into the driving seat thinking “It’s happened before and I guess it will happen again”. I had travelled another half mile before it did happened again. Cursing the farmer who had littered the marsh with fertiliser bags I stopped the Landrover and raised my binoculars once more only to discover a pair of bags with long legs and bills. They were indeed Spoonbills.
No sooner had I focused upon them they were off moving west.
Letter From Norfolk 