Country diary: mudflats as a magnet for wetland birds

Langstone Harbour, Hampshire: These newly arrived migrants had joined a post-breeding congregation of 20 mute swans to forage in the shallows for green algae and eelgrassAs I sat on the concrete jetty with the late afternoon sun warming my face and bare arms, it felt as though winter was weeks away, but the presence of a raft of several hundred ducks in the bay suggested otherwise.Langstone harbour’s intertidal mudflats are a magnet for wetland birds and these newly arrived migrants had jo