I made a brief foray to the coast in the morning and was rewarded with the sight of a pair of avocet with two chicks. The parents were very alert, using their typical contact call to keep in touch and a very distinctive alarm call whenever a great black-backed gull or similar predator was spotted. The chicks obviously knew exactly what this meant and immediately stopped their feeding on the open mud and ran into the long grass beside the lagoon.
I managed two very poor shots of one of the feeding adults, they were much too active for digi-scoping.
feeding avocet
Although broad sweeps of the surface layer are the typical method of feeding there were times when there was a need to get further in.
Deep feeding
Avocet are not the rarity they once were and a real conservation success story, they are also one of those species that sort of demand to be looked at.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 
Beautiful birds…know what you mean about “demanding to be looked at”, very striking.
Some species just need to be looked at even if you see them regularly. For me this list includes species like chough, red kite, hobby and raven, I cannot just ignore them, but then I find it hard to ignore any birds, which is probably why I am so easily distracted!