Our beach has been deserted recently. The river has bent shaprly to the side, cutting into the dunes and washing away the footpath. It's too much effort for the casual visitors to risk balancing on the sand and sliding down into the river, so we sturdy locals have our beach to ourselves again.

Last week, there were more curlews than I have ever seen - it's usually one or two and not very frequent, but -- perhaps they were migrating? -- there were at least ten that morning. These were very shy. Even though I was the only person there, they rose up from the low tide sandbars and circled around making that strange lonesome call that only curlews make.