This amazing photo by Greg Harrison shows a massed group of Great Knots Calidris tenuirostris, a medium sized wader that migrates each year to subarctic tundra in north- eastern Siberia to breed, before returning for the summer back to Australia. Like other shorebirds, knots are in decline and now listed as Critically Endangered; places like Kakadu Beach bird roost provide a safe haven for them during high tides. Knots are almost exclusively marine birds during their time in Australia, feeding on the extensive mudflats of Pumicestone Passage and Godwin Beach. They have a strange habit of clustering in dense knots, although their name may come from the Anglo-Danish ruler Cnut, king of England, Denmark and Norway from 1016 to 1035. He is reputed to show his courtiers he was not all-powerful, have ordered his throne placed on the beach and commanded the tide not to come in.
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