Tuesday, May 09, 2017
Yesterday we walked round the village and out onto the spit. The tide was just at the height it was one day in late June last year, when we saw a male stickleback guarding his nest; so we found the right spot on the riverbank and looked down on the off-chance - to see this. The male is on his side encouraging the female, who is big with eggs, to use his nest. It seems he succeeded.
Today I was tired and decided on a bit of lay-by birding - with my target bird being a whinchat. I drew a blank in two places and then found an area that was burnt (wildfire?). This held a wheatear and a whinchat - both singing.
I took a walk nearby, finding no tadpoles in the ditch and just one palmate newt. A tree pipit was singing and displaying.
A greenshank was seen on the shore of a road-side loch.
// posted by Christine @ 1:56 PM 
