Tide

Dunlin flock off Hoylake, Wirral February 28th 2025 © Jeff Clarke

Every 24.8 hrs (or thereabouts), two inundation cycles of our coastal areas take place. The animals and plants of the intertidal zone are slaves to the rhythm. The most visible component of this interplay are the waders, or shorebirds. Frenzied feeding, followed by a flight to safe roost for some rest and recuperation, though the rest is seldom entirely peaceful. Threats abound and a degree of alertness requires fitful sleep, a hemisphere at a time.

Ruddy Turnstone - Hoylake, Wirral February 28th 2025 © Jeff Clarke

These denizens of the tidal edge are wonderful examples of niche exploitation. Each has a differentiation that allows them to exploit food resources in a unique way. The allows a greater diversity of life to exist in any given ecosystem. Some, like the Eurasian Curlew, take this differentiation one step further. Females have longer bills than males, meaning each sex can exploit differing prey items more effectively and this allows more curlews to occupy the same range.

Eurasian Curlew - Hoylake, Wirral February 28th 2025 © Jeff Clarke

As the tides advances on the shore, watchers gather at key locations to enjoy the spectacle of tens of thousands birds being compressed into an ever decreasing ribbon of muddy substrate, At the hint of a predator the birds whirl across the sky in vivid murmurations, only at high tide is there a fleeting period of calm, before the wheel turns and the whole cycle begins. In the blink of an eye the birds begin to fan out across the newly exposed smorgasmord, probing, picking, drilling in a fashion each to their own.

Red Knot - Hoylake, Wirral February 28th 2025 © Jeff Clarke

Common Redshank - Hoylake, Wirral February 28th 2025 © Jeff Clarke