Spoonbills, quail and avocets on the Ribble

I was at Hesketh Out Marsh for 6:30 this morning, my second visit of the weekend following a late afternoon visit yesterday. With Marshside and Banks now little more than dust bowls, HOM is virtually the only place with water on these marshes, and even here it appears to be drying rapidly. I walked east for about a mile and a half, to the point where the River Douglas joins the Ribble. 

I was accompanied on the way by the song of at least four quail in the fields, while on the pools there were three spoonbill, an adult and two juveniles, 16 avocets, spotted redshank, 600+ black-tailed godwits, around 40 common terns, many redshanks and perhaps most impressively, 26 greenshank. 

On reaching the Douglas I found even more avocets, 40 in total, plus another two spoonbills, the adult and juvenile in the photo at the top of this post.

Quail have bred here this year with adults and chicks seen on at least one occasion, spoonbills breed in the local vicinity and avocets are now long established. It's impossible to walk here these days without seeing at least 20 little egrets and two or three great white egrets. Should we be happy or concerned? Short term happy I guess, but long term? Who knows?