Country diary: The magic and mayhem of a sky full of waders | Mark Cocker

Snettisham, Norfolk: Early starts don't get rewarded more handsomely than this, the sight of hundreds of thousands of birds bringing the air to lifeThe high-tide roost at this RSPB reserve is among the most spectacular events in all English nature. On the morning of my visit, it involved thousands of oystercatchers and bar-tailed godwits with tens of thousands of red knots, who, by this season, have turned to the white-and-grey of winter plumage.Yet in the earliest post-dawn sunlight they presented across a spotless western horizon as no more than black fragments pouring on to the Wash tide-edge a mile away. I hurried on, praying not to miss a moment. By 7.30am, colours finally swelled up through the scene: the ice-blue of the heavens, the saltmarsh layered green and red and brown, topped by a white-grey carpet thick with stationary birds. The tide was still rising and pushing the flocks into further adjustments, when their display blossomed into something unforgettable. Continue reading...