Country diary: the omnivorous blackbird shares a taste for blood

Rockland St Mary, Norfolk This adaptable bird feeds on fruit, insects, worms - and sometimes something even more substantial

The raised track by this broad is bordered by a sallow thicket that overtops a network of intertidal creeks.

To compensate for the subterranean shadows, you have to cowl your eyes and cup your ears to detect any secret occupant. Usually this is little more than a moorhen but, now and then, it is something finer, such as a feeding woodcock. Fixing the whereabouts of any quiet commotion, which always inserts into the moment a shudder of excitement, is your best hope of seeing it before being seen.