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A LARGE BROWNISH BIRD perches on an old wildfowlers' hide in the middle of the marsh. As I have heard there is an escaped bird of prey in the area I immediately think;'Bataleur Eagle!' (I've no idea why, it doesn't look a bit like one).
This marshy field between the canal and the River Calder is known as The Wyke, from an Anglo-Saxon word for a dwelling or farm, often implying a dairy farm. The name probably goes back more than a millenium. Cattle are still put out to pasture here.
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But when it moves its head and stretches its wings, it presents a much more familiar silhouette. It is an immature Cormorant.
A Heron stands below it in the old hide. In front of it two herons which have been stalking the shallows take wing in dispute. Soon all three are in the air. They career about over the surrounding pasture, putting up some of the one hundred or so Lapwings that have gathered there.