Every day of the dry season, seawater floods between gaps in the coastal dunes and spreads landward. Meandering through a lacework of channels, the water rises to nourish a crowding mantle of mangrove forests, then infiltrates the wide tidal pools and marshes beyond. Moving with the rising water, fish, rays, turtles, and estuarine crocodiles fan out to find a meal in the newly inundated territory, their urgency hidden by the lazy cover of richly silted water. Soon though, the receding tide draws them seaward, and the glittering mud and sand is once again owned by a bewildering array of wading birds. The freshly washed surface is steadily re-printed by three-toed impressions of a hundred different sizes, and beaks probe, scoop, sift, peck, jiggle and rake for the teaming invertebrates.