As is often the case, I heard them before I saw them, a huddle of perhaps 20 Turnstones, busily scurrying back and forth, flicking their way through the most recent piles of seaweed deposited by the outgoing tide and hooking their beaks beneath the smaller stones to find the delicacies hidden beneath.

Though my video only catches the distant sound of the waves, I could hear two other, different types of sound: as well as the clinking of the stones, the birds were also chattering to themselves and each other. I wondered what they were saying: ‘Look what I’ve found’; ‘This one’s juicy’; ‘That’s mine’; ‘It’s a good feast today’; ‘I saw that first’?

As walkers passed by with their dogs, completely oblivious to the delightful gathering just a few feet below their path, I paused to watch and enjoy these glorious little shore birds going about their daily business.