Sunday, September 11, 2016
It was almost low tide, and the sands had attracted a good number of waders. Dunlins, ringed plovers, and sanderlings were bathing and loafing around the end of a shallow lagoon, and three bar-tailed godwits and a knot were foraging and preening further down the beach towards the sea.
More people arrived and the waders, though not too bothered by their presence, became a little more mobile. The godwits and knot flew up the river, but one godwit later returned and gave me close views for some time.
On the loch beloved by bathing great black-backed gulls (at least ten were present now), a tiny dot on the choppy water turned out to be a Slavonian grebe, its summer colours beginning to give way to winter plumage.
A merlin was darting about at the speed of light, vanishing behind the hill before I could do anything sensible; and when I finally drove away, the three godwits were down beside the river below the high lay-by. Now what, I wondered, had become of the knot?
// posted by Christine @ 12:39 PM 
