Pett Level
Though other people had already seen them, this morning was the first that Common Terns were really conspicuous, their shrill calls and slender spiralling forms heralding three months of noisy breeding activity, as they commute between the open sea and the shingle islands of the Pannel Valley.
A small brown raptor skimming the edge of the shingle bank swooped up to alight on a groyne: a f Merlin. It soon sped off across the moorlog, spreading alarm and despondency among the 80 Turnstones.
