Country diary: The salty symphony of waders in autumn | Mark Cocker

<p><strong>Snettisham, Norfolk:</strong> The spectacle is magnificent enough, but this time it was the sounds that moved me, of curlews, whimbrels, skylarks and knots</p><p>When I say the wader roost on the Wash at this RSPB reserve is one of the greatest sights in British nature, it understates one of its central elements: the everyday ordinariness of it. After all, it unfolds once every 12 hours throughout autumn and winter. Go&nbsp;for half a day and you couldn’t fail to have an encounter.</p><p>Each visit is also different. Some&nbsp;friends have been to photograph it on hundreds of occasions, and still they return. It can occasionally be quite flat – the birds, perhaps 250,000 of them, follow the tide’s incoming and outgoing, but only slowly, sub‑flock&nbsp;by sub-flock; no alarm, no&nbsp;drama or sudden movement, and little adrenaline. Usually, however, it is unforgettable.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/20/country-diary-the-salty-symphony-of-waders-in-autumn">Continue reading...</a>