What are you up to for the rest of the week?
Can you be ready in 2 hours, I need you to come to Norfolk!
And just like that I was off on my first shoot, not exactly how I expected it to go.
We drove to Norfolk that afternoon. My producer, Chris filled me in on the details on the way.
Every Autumn tens of thousands of these small waders make their way to Norfolk to gather on the mudflats.
With every tide, pushed by the water they make their way up the estuary towards Snettisham.
As the last of the mudflats gets covered by the advancing tide they take to the air. Like a furl of smoke, they rise off the water. Every twist and turn sends a lustrous shimmer across the estuary.
Knot cascade across the sky. Each wing beat drums and one by one the rhythm builds.
A change of direction reverberates across the sky.
The murmuration pulses with a life of its own.
Birds shatter, condense and implode again. No edges to define this shape.
A final flourish brings the last dance to an end. But even on the ground, the murmuration lives on, ten thousand individuals together as one.
Not bad for a first shoot!
