Our first day free from covid restrictions was spent doing a circuit of the familiar Newcastle birding hotspots. What became increasingly apparent – due to the prevailing wet weather conditions, linked to El Nino, and changes in salinity on Hexham Swamp – is that there are very few waders about. Whereas, on previous trips, we may have seen hundreds of up to a dozen varieties, this time we’ve hardly seen any. Still, we did see some nice stuff, including Banded Lapwing – a specialist of the inland ‘lawn-turf’ fields and a more recent heron coloniser – the huge Jabiru or Black-necked Stork.