Late in the afternoon of December 3, 2015 Malcolm and Nan discovered Mum and Dad’s nest in the dunes, just a scrape in the sand really.

alert and staunch as ever while keeping her two eggs warm ready for hatching in a few days’ time.

Finally that’s me on the beach at Sandy Bay dreaming about a shore bird’s version of OE - summer camp with the other teenage dotterels up or down the coast, somewhere out over that blue horizon.