Christine's walking & birds blog

A little ringed plover was a nice surprise on East Marsh. I had been breaking my back looking through one of the lower windows (who designed these blooming hides?!) when another birder turned up and kindly let me look through his 'scope. It had a very clean lens (unlike my bins) so the view was wonderful.

I walked to the weir, seeing lesser black-backs, herring gulls and common terns. A peregrine flew in high from the north, changed its mind and went back. A buzzard perched on one of the floodlights on the farm until a magpie chased it off.

Back at the bridge, I thought I'd try again just in case the plover had come closer - and it had! It was on the island closest to the hide and I watched it foraging for some time. It must have been able to see me but evidently decided I was harmless.

No doubt the plover (a female, I think) was just passing through, which is usual for this species at this site.

As I was leaving, a sharp call made me look back to see a common sandpiper glide across East Marsh onto another of the islands close to the hide. But it was time to go home.