IT'S ALL KICKING OFF OUTSIDE THIS CLEETHORPES SEAFRONT DENTAL SURGERY

The dental practice (white building, centre) overlooks the beach and saltmarsh

                        

Another day arrives at the attractively-housed dental surgery on Cleethorpes seafront.

Check-ups, fillings, extractions, polishing and more, you know the drill (ha!)

But perhaps unknown both to the dentists and their patients, tens of thousands of  birds have spent the past fortnight feeding, preening and  roosting just metres away.

At this time of year, the saltmarsh and mudflats play host to huge numbers of wading birds that stop off on their migration from the Arctic and northern Europe, where they breed, on their way to warmer climes  in  Africa.

There are few more dramatic wildlife spectacles on the British coast, especially when they all take to the sky.

Up, up and away - the birds take to the wing

A mixed flock of waders and a solitary gull not far out from the central beach

At this time of year, the leisure centre could almost double as a bird observatory

Some of these oystercatchers will probably stay in Cleethorpes well into autumn and beyond

The birds with the black waistcoats are grey plovers still in their breeding plumage 

This bar-tailed godwit has decided to take 40 winks

Another shot of the grey plovers

These are mostly knot, some still in their orange breeding plumage