Withymoor - Amblecote, Stourbridge..... (2 Viewers)

Some of yesterdays' Hobbies...

Hi Laurie, interesting notes on the treatment of "million" and woodlarks. Did you know that the area surrounding the heronry at checkhill was designated sssi because of this species? I spoke to the farmer who said he hadn't seen woodlark for over 20 years. I keep a close watch around area as my other half stables her horse there and I too have not seen them. In fact my last woody was in Lesvos ( where I should be now). Oh well keep em peeled. Regards Dennis

:CHi Dennis -

Nice to hear from you:t:

About 8 years ago i popped over at first light to Cannock Chase (i had a motorbike in those days). My intent was a general Dawn Chorus and i think it was mid-May. I wasn’t disappointed and the full panoply of Spring migrants you would expect were on show. Noted were about half a dozen Woodlarks iirc. Whilst mooching around i spotted a lone car parked which i thought was odd as all the barriers were locked. Further inspection revealed an official looking sign stating that a ‘BTO breeding bird survey’ was being undertaken. I clocked the culprit and had a nice chat. He said he was censusing Woodlarks. He told me that he estimated about 25 pairs - i don’t know what the current status is? He also said that since recolonisation about 15+ years ago they haven’t recorded a single Winter record of the species within the Cannock Chase recording area. He assumed they must bunch up and/or range wider during the Winter and this should ensure further colonisation in suitable habitat...

Of interest to me, apart from recolonisation, was the optimum habitats they were using to nest. Most were not in Heather and scrub but favoured clearfell areas where all the brash had been left to Bramble over. In fact areas of very young (10-20yo) Scots Pine were being felled in little pockets here and there and left to Bramble etc just for Woodlarks.

The area i described at the Million contains older timber that is stacked for removal but the many windrows are being left it would appear. The area near the Heronry was felled last year and is still at an early stage. This years section is by the Fox at Stourton and i note that it is being fenced against Deer. The contractors have still left residual broadleaf and standing dead Pine. I will pop down during midweek shortly on my next Spring migrant visit and have a chat and will update accordingly.

I have never been down to the Heronry but Woodlarks last bred in 1962 locally around Kinver afaik. There is now far too many walkers and dogs at a number of areas but Woodlark could still manage to breed whereas Nightjar would be pushing it imo...

I should have been preparing for a week on the Albanian wetlands followed by a 2nd in Italy having returned from Eilat and looking forward to a 3rd consecutive September at Batumi, Georgia but the latter has been cancelled whilst the Spring count is still happening:C Oh well - Tarifa is still a possibility in order to salvage something exciting from the year:t:

All the best -

Laurie:t:

YOUR QUOTE.........A % of the current crop of newbie birders, mainly older people with time/money/car etc, contribute nothing and take whatever they can. This personally has led to me becoming even more insular, if that is possible, in my dealings when out in the field. I find i have to ‘weigh up’ approaching birders and decide whether to even acknowledge their passing presence and whether to ‘shoot the breeze’ with them or will they demand info e.g. ‘what’s about’? The advent of social media has been a double-edged sword and i owe it to nobody to pass on information and will be circumspect, even with birding friends, on exact details of breeding species in particular. You only have to read about the wall-to-wall braindead at a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker site in Wyre - no wonder they are scarce:C

Elsewhere on this forum a well-known patch-worker and twitcher puts a case that joggers and cyclists pose more of a risk.....END OF YOUR QUOTE.



Hi Laurie

It's me from Woodrow.....quote...' older person, with time/money/car etc, who contributes nothing and takes whatever they can'. !

I'm glad you know me, my situation and my bird knowledge and can judge as you judge everyone else with your venom and vitriol.

I think from what I read and hear that you are currently in the minority with your multi mile, rule breaking bird marathons. Those with a brain are following the guidelines advised to us.....but I forgot you know best as you have isolated yourself for years with your insular anti-social behaviour.

Why post on a forum if you don't want others to benefit from your obvious extensive knowledge. I suggest you type your reports and e.mail them to yourself to read in insular isolated loneliness.

Ian Byrnes said:

YOUR QUOTE.........A % of the current crop of newbie birders, mainly older people with time/money/car etc, contribute nothing and take whatever they can. This personally has led to me becoming even more insular, if that is possible, in my dealings when out in the field. I find i have to ‘weigh up’ approaching birders and decide whether to even acknowledge their passing presence and whether to ‘shoot the breeze’ with them or will they demand info e.g. ‘what’s about’? The advent of social media has been a double-edged sword and i owe it to nobody to pass on information and will be circumspect, even with birding friends, on exact details of breeding species in particular. You only have to read about the wall-to-wall braindead at a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker site in Wyre - no wonder they are scarce:C

Elsewhere on this forum a well-known patch-worker and twitcher puts a case that joggers and cyclists pose more of a risk.....END OF YOUR QUOTE.



Hi Laurie

It's me from Woodrow.....quote...' older person, with time/money/car etc, who contributes nothing and takes whatever they can'. !

I'm glad you know me, my situation and my bird knowledge and can judge as you judge everyone else with your venom and vitriol.

I think from what I read and hear that you are currently in the minority with your multi mile, rule breaking bird marathons. Those with a brain are following the guidelines advised to us.....but I forgot you know best as you have isolated yourself for years with your insular anti-social behaviour.

Why post on a forum if you don't want others to benefit from your obvious extensive knowledge. I suggest you type your reports and e.mail them to yourself to read in insular isolated loneliness.

Click to expand...

This virus seems to be bringing the worst out of people, understandable I suppose, could birders just chill out.

And on that note let's take a moment to commemorate the sad loss of the NHS & care workers who have given their life to this virus.

Hi Laurie, just remembered I posted a pic of woodlark on Lesvos on my gallery, (page 6) if you would like to view. Can't believe it was 8 years ago tho I remember it v clearly. I had stopped car to photograph a Black headed Bunting when woody landed on rocks next to me with a beak full of food. It sounds like you had a full itinerary planned, me too, but I am now reduced to chasing Branson for a refund and musing on what might have been. Regards Dennis

Hi Ian -

I am of course generalising because i know the type of birders i am talking about and bump into them all of the time. I do not know you and maybe i will bump into you at some stage:t:

I suggest you carry on doing what you do and i will do likewise and thanks for commenting - it is after all a forum...

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Only an hour up at the West Hagley Fields on Monday and nothing yesterday as it rained all day with more to come this week so it will be a few days of ducking and diving.....

Whilst watching the Hobbies on Sunday i didn’t pay much attention to what they were feeding on. Like most people i am used to them feeding at maybe 10 yards or so to higher elevations on Dragonflies and large Beetles etc. One of my shots does show a bird transferring food or pulling something off a prey item. The field concerned usually has Cattle grazing but not recently by the look and lack of cowpats and even then the Yellowish dung flies are to be found in situ so to speak. The birds fed very actively at about 6-8 feet above ground level. I now realise that they were feeding on the very distinctive St Mark’s Fly so called because of its emergence around St Mark’s Day the 25th of April. These moderate-sized flies are distinctly Black, hairy and long trailing legs. They gather in loose batchelor swarms waiting to clasp a female. They will be familiar to a lot of people around the Easter period:t:

I couldn’t help but note that Pelicans have been seen on deserted London’s Birdcage Walk - another by-product of the lack of traffic. Pelicans have been present since a pair were given as a gift from a Russian Ambassador several hundred years ago. They do not breed afaik and presumably are either clipped or pinioned? I remember seeing various species free-flying in the Snowdon Aviary when i had a part-time job at London Zoo in the 70’s - this was when ‘Goldie’ the Golden Eagle made a bid for freedom for a few days (i saw it kill a Grey Squirrel that foolishly ventured into its caged domain). The Pelicans numbers are augmented by ‘gifts’ from time to time e.g. a bird from Prague here and a Louisiana individual there so quite what species mix is present now i know not but maybe it is time for a Pink-backed from the Rift Valley...

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: the distinct St Mark’s Fly and the ‘Mall’ Pelicans...

rollingthunder said:

Hi Ian -

I am of course generalising because i know the type of birders i am talking about and bump into them all of the time. I do not know you and maybe i will bump into you at some stage:t:

I suggest you carry on doing what you do and i will do likewise and thanks for commenting - it is after all a forum...

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Click to expand...

Ok Laurie

Enough said.....when this is over may be we will bump in to one another and chat.

Your are obviously well travelled and very knowledgeable about birds, which I admire.

See you at Upton, Grimley or Merry Hill one day.

Hi Ian -

Thank you very much for your kind comments:t:

In these stressed times the line between constructive criticism, musing and banter can become blurred and reading between the lines must also be ‘exercised’:t:

I look forward to a chat at some stage - hopefully ‘The Warren’ will reopen asap so that people can get a ‘fix’

Regards and good birding - wherever that is at present -

Laurie:t:

After 3 days of unsettled conditions i ventured out for a coupla hours up to Fens Pools but still it rained, blew and was cold - i almost wished i hadn’t bothered. Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Whitethroats were singing (2-4pm) and there was a small party of 20+ feeding House Martins with a handful of Swallows in the lee of the Dam. A solitary Swift was my year first, welcome but scant reward for the effort.....

Elsewhere Ian Whitehouse was gifted a WTE over at Sheepwash earlier in the day. This bird, along with 3 others, has been on a Grand Tour for a few weeks and could be encountered locally just about anywhere so it’s eyes to the skies:eek!:

BBC Radio 4’s Open Country (6-6:30) this morning was a ‘lockdown’ nature diary from our very own Brett Westwood It covers about a month of ‘soundbites’ from his garden and around Stourbridge. I bump into Brett either out birding or in Waitrose when he is not ensconced in Bristol or away elsewhere. He is a quiet sort of bloke, does not do social media, and is a font of non-avian snippets as there isn’t much he is not interested in. Quite how he heard of the Great Northern Diver on the canal at Kidderminster a couple of months ago is something i shall buttonhole him about on our next meeting:-C

Here is the link to this morning’s programme.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hpdg

The weather is finally settling again so i think i shall fettle a bike and be Grimmers bound mid-morning when the cool overnight air will have been warmed once Helios has dragged his chariot across the sky for a few hours.

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: blurry House Martin and B2-profiled Swift hawking over Fens Pools...

Upto the West Hagley Fields for 8:30 on a gloriously sunny and quite warm start, it changed later on, the recently tilled fields now wet and dark which nicely contrasts with small pale passerines!

The best 3 fields are located down at the County Lane end and straddle the main sandy path upto the pumping station. A nice thick hedge runs between them with another at right angles about half way up. All 3 are in the West Midlands county but a field next door is Worcestershire and one at the lower junction of County Lane is Staffordshire - all 3 counties in a small sweep of the binoculars and within a coupla hundred yards walking. I often imagine finding a 'first' for the region and if it is highly mobile getting the 1st records for 3 counties - dream on.....

The main hedge seemed alive with Whitethroats with singing males deep in the cover and also birds song-flighting by the time i had reached the top of the track it was double figures - the local Yellowhammers must have wondered what had hit them! In addition a coupla Lesser Whitethroats and a Corn Bunting were heard elsewhere. The top field held 3 male Wheatears which stood out like the proverbial sore thumb:t:

Back for tea and medals at 9:30 before Grimmers mid-morning.

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: Habitat panorama and Wheatears.

Grimmers notes - posted elsewhere.

It is noticeable just how the traffic has increased over the last 3 days and cycling today was no exception - i think i might have to start actually wearing a mask..........due to the sudden increase in Diesel particulates! Car parking at Grimmers is now at the end of the access lane as the Lord of Grimley has placed signs adjacent to his 'private' road with veiled threats of the Plods being called etc etc - they will have to go at some stage Noticeably more cars parked than last week - you can't beat a bit of local birding.....if you have a car of course.

I undertook a figure of 8 taking in both workings and some old quarry habitat. There isn't a great deal of Phragmites at Grimmers but every clump seemed to hold a Reed Warbler. In addition i picked up a Sedge over at the New Workings. A solitary Common Tern hawked and Marsh Frogs croaked. 2 passage Dunlin were noted and no less than 5, widely spaced, Cuckoos were calling - it's nice to see they are socially distancing during these stressfull times.....

Notable were about 100 Sand Martins hawking high above the Old Workings with Swallows way below along with a the odd House Martin. A single Swift was seen feeding over both pools. I took a slight detour around the White Hart Angling Club pool and was rewarded with a singing Cetti's Warbler which was both a surprise and a nice find.

Quite a few birders and walkers were out and about but despite the obvious sun and puffy White clouds is was not that warm. The clouds all had flat Grey bases which means a cold breeze at that height is shearing the base away and removing heat from reaching the ground making it noticeably chilly. All in all a pleasant couple of hours but no Hobbies as the birds i saw last week would have been recently arrived and were only feeding prior to moving on.

Good birding -

Laurie

Attached:

Lord of the Manor.

Oystercatcher and Hippo - fortunately i have seen Blacksmith and Egyptian Plovers on a real one on Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha...

Dunlin.

Male Gadwall.

Mistletoe - a Worcestershire speciality.

A quiet 3 days with Sunday heavily overcast and Mon/Tue too windy and cold to do anything but walk the dog. Fortunately the rest of the week, certainly upto Saturday is forecast much gentler with corresponding rise in temperatures. Noticeably more people about, shops open and the downside of more road traffic.....

On Sunday i decided to spend a coupla hours checking Industrial Estates around Lye for both Black Redstart and breeding Lesser Black-backed Gulls. None found and surprisingly not the latter but i shall venture further afield when the weather permits to check other areas.

Yesterday, despite not getting up until 0730, was a joy to be out and about. 8-11 saw me up at Fens Pools. I arrived on the causeway to a party of 20+ hawking Swifts including several 'screamers' the sound, for me, is the official sign that Summer has arrived although it is technically late-Spring. Both House Martins and Swallows were in the melee. Plenty of Whitethroats in the scrub and a couple of Lessers rattling away to themselves. No great shakes on the edges but finally a double wader day! An adult Little Ringed PLover was feeding on the Middle Pool and a solitary Common Sandpiper flitting here and there. Hopefully May promises more birds and more variety.

Back via Merry Hill to see the male Raven departing from the nest so all is well:t:

Down the canal to Wordsley in the afternoon with the dog - plenty of Blackcaps with the odd Chiffchaff. An hour up at the Hagley Fields drew a blank apart from plenty of self-distancing walkers taking advantage of both the settled weather and possibly the last chance before it's nose to the grindstone.....

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached:

The former Caledonia sewage works in Lye. I used to peer in from the perimeter fence when i lived in Lye in the late 80's. I had a smart male Blue-headed Wagtail iirc. It has recently been demolished and is accessible so i will have a poke around at some stage.

Swifts, LRP and Common Sand at Fens Pools.

A lovely balmy day yesterday clouding and cooling mid-morning but returning to form mid-afternoon. VE Day promises more of the same and continues into Saturday. Sunday will see a change with widespread showers and cooling temperatures but this could bring a scattering of species at reservoirs and elsewhere...

Out at 7 and back at 1030. Noticeably less activity on the canal with correspondingly increased car use. More small shops open and lots of factory operations resuming altho a lot have ticked over or kept calm and carried on throughout the ChinaVirus siege. No repeat of the WaderFest at Fens Pools but plenty of warblers on show and in song notably Whitethroats with the odd Lesser. After a coupla hours and a cigar i moved on to the PearTree Lane area adjacent to Merry Hill. Transitting thru the Waterfront i noted both Ravens active so presumably they are both feeding young. I also noted several 'official looking' vehicles including some sort of traffic monitering and enforcment. These were being used for some sort of training exercise for what looked like a group of young Gurkhas!

PearTree Lane is an area of industrial units with plenty of rooves and valleys for breeding Gulls - there are always birds wheeling over the area so it figures that adults present at this time of year will be likely candidates for breeding. A quick scan yielded a number of alert birds and i decided to cycle down a likely access road which ended in a cul-de-sac and 2 adult Lesser Black-backed staring me down from a few hundred yards away. Despite the 'social distancing' i had put between us the agitated calls meant a nice nest was present. Perhaps these birds have taken a leaf out of so-called 'expert' Neil Ferguson's book and have decided that conjugal visits are not included and does not apply to them. What surprises me is how few nests there actually are, i saw only one there is possibly another but little signs of any more. A visit to the nearby lower slopes of Netherton Hill are in order as the elevated position affords excellent views over the Estate and a tripod/scope combo will reveal more if they are there.

Part of the area contains the newer Blackbrook Valley Trading Estate. I birded this area regularly in the 80's when it was an old sand and gravel pit, it often held watery flashes due to the ground water level being relatively high. Sadly the area is now long transformed and a gem of a habitat gone forevever. It was an excellent watering hole for migrants but it yielded more than that. For a 3 year period, 83-86/7 iirc, it held a superb range of breeding species. I recorded 2 pair of Stonechat, upto 3 pairs of Little Ringed Plover, a regular colony of Sand Martins and repeated breeding of a single pair of Wheatear. Species like Grasshopper Warbler and Whinchat were annual and Yellow Wagtail also bred once during that period. This was before the age of the Internet, pushy photographers and birders imbued with a sense of entitlement to information - i am glad i had the place more or less to myself apart from visitations from people like the late Eric Phillips and ian Whitethroat.

The cloud had lifted by 3 so i decided to cycle over to Bunkers Wood, bumped into another Stourbridge birder called Dave, and spent nearly 2 hours mooching about. Bunkers is a decent size and has a series of paths and tracks. The far end of the wood, about 25% of it is much wilder with broken Pines and plenty of understorey. Late afternoon can still be a good time for bird song particularly migrants that sing on an ad hoc basis at all times of the day whilst deciding whether to stay or go. A handful of Willow Warblers along with several other species were noted. 5 years ago a mate placed a dozen open-fronted nestboxes in the 'wilder'area and was rewarded with no less than 4 pairs of breeding Redstart in the first year! This shows that birds move thru but there is a shortage of nest sites not food. Ravens have prospected several times but i think it is just too regularly used by dog walkers but if they can overcome their natural waryness the World is their Oyster. It is also an eminently suitable site for colonising Goshawk as there are large numbers of excellent tall Scots Pine. Again if the species can handle the visitors i predict this a possible site away from its Wyre Forest stronghold. This wood, like many others in the area, were cut over extensively for strategic supplies of timber during WW2 this means there are a distinct lack of older trees containing suitable cavities. Some woods were managed by people like Harris Brushes which kept the Coppice with Standards management regime in situ and this provided 5-7 year regrowth which benefitted regional Nightingales but their presences seems just a memory now for whatever reason. At other local Woodland Trust sites there is active repetition of the Harris regime i.e. Uffmoor and Pepper Wood. I visited Pepper a few weeks ago and was pleased to see, finally, the implementation of a widespread nestbox scheme - i shall revisit next week and update accordingly.

I took in the Hagley Fields to finish at 6pm. The County Lane field held nothing which left the 2 large fields up the Sandy track. The lower one quickly revealed 5 standout loud Wheatears at the top end of it. I moved a couple of hundred yards up the track for some distant record shots and by the time i had reached the boundary hedge between the lower and upper field they, like ephemeral Mayflies, had departed literally for pastures new. A gaggle of buzzy Whitethroats were present in the main hedge with both Corn Bunting and LesserThroat for backup and that as they say was that.....

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached:

Female Raven, Ghurkas, 5 Wheatears, LBB on nest and my afternoon route yesterday with Bunkers on the extreme left of the ride...

Another fine day and i decided a change of direction to 'Go West' and at 0800 set off for Hurcott. Instead of a scenic meandering route via Churchill i opted for the more direct route using the Stourbridge to Kidderminster road. At the top of the rise about 2 miles hence it opens to give a panoramic view to the Malverns and Clee. I stopped and scanned a series of tilled fields for passerine migrants before continuing on the main road. I do not use this route a lot as it is usually unproductive and is a busy fast road. Yesterday it was much quieter being a Bank Holiday - i was able to zip thru between 15 and 20 mph hitting 26.2 on the steep downward section - picking up 3 species of Sylvia on the way...

The Hurcott car park was full.....of people who never go there - take their car away and where would they be? The far end reedbed was simply buzzing with Reed Warblers, i estimated about 6 singing males minimum with other birds flitting and a couple of females 'wing shimmering' to be fed by attendant males. I exited the far end and took advantage of a locally grown vegetable that the larger % of which will just go to seed - so in a couple of hundred yards i had gone from Acrocephalus to Asparagus

Back for 1130 passing a number of veterans outside their houses and a few making their way to the Cenotaph for the 75th anniversary of VE Day - Friday should have been a day of overt National celebrating but because of the way people eat and what they eat thousands of miles away Europe has been deprived of paying homage to those that died to protect the freedom that we all take for granted. I hope people remember this when it comes to sourcing goods in the future - we have 2 things the Chinese will never have and that is Democracy and clean air...

I made the afternoon trip up to the West Hagley Fields and clicked with a male and a female Wheatear 1 on each of the right hand fields. Cycling back i was pleased to see lots of people indulging in 'street party' scenarios - all that was missing was Vera Lynn signing some autographed photos.

Today i shall be reinforcing the advice that Grant Shapps will be giving over the weekend to 'get out and exercise particularly walking and cycling' - for some of us with a modicum of common sense and an innate ability to read between the lines it is all we have been doing since the so-called experts told us to stop in..........whilst they were getting their oil changed. It has been a long gloomy Winter and peoples levels of Vitamin D will be low. The best source of the stuff is sunshine - i will rest my case. Today will be Fens Pools and back for tea and medals before making the weekly trek to Grimmers:t:

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: Wheatears, fields, Columbine and Hettie...

rollingthunder said:

Today i shall be reinforcing the advice that Grant Shapps will be giving over the weekend to 'get out and exercise particularly walking and cycling' - for some of us with a modicum of common sense and an innate ability to read between the lines it is all we have been doing since the so-called experts told us to stop in..........whilst they were getting their oil changed. I


Good birding -

Laurie:t:

...

Click to expand...

I see you are still self righteous, and everybody else is wrong. Even those with a miniscule modicum of sense abidded by the rules. Not you, after a month+ you have now got an excuse!!!

I will more or less let these 2 images speak for themselves.....

‘Expert’ Professor Lockdown Neil Ferguson - if the bimbo has any sense she will drop him like untreated sewage.....then he will be an ‘ex-spurt’

Grant Shapp’s statement speaks for itself - he is advising something that those with the right sort of modicum i.e. common sense have been ‘advising’ since the ill-concieved lockdown measures were implemented. It would not surprise me if Shapp’s has been perusing this thread and based upon my daily updates, boosted by higher Vitamin D levels than the average birder, has decided to change Government policy incorporating my MO rather than follow Ferguson’s - meanwhile the birding sheeple have missed a half-decent Spring.

I would magnanimously suggest you dust off your old Raleigh, pedal about 20 miles South-West and get your wounds licked by your mates:-O

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

It's not often that you get a day in May when it is difficult, unless it's wall to wall daylight rain, to actually get out in the field at all. Yesterday, for me, was one of those days. The chill wind that is blowing across the British Isles turned literal with a steady 15+mph gusting to double that at times and sustained. Add to that the NW direction and i opted for a day of cabin fever...

So here are Saturdays notes, a day of contrasting weather with up until mid-afternoon being sunny and warm shorts and sunglasses. The clouds started developing flat dark bottoms and turning noticeably cooler a portent of the next day.

I headed for Fens Pools as that really is the only game in town for migrants other than passerines. The female Raven at Merry Hill appeared to be refurbishing herself with plenty of wing flapping noted. Warblers were quiet at FP but half a dozen spp eventually 'fessed up with Whitethroat being the main culprit - again a couple of Lessers. Since my last visit a small kid had got himself stuck in the mud and had to be freed by the Fire Brigade - i am surprised that they still know how to do that these days, judging by the Stourbridge lot who frequent Aldi a lot they haven't done a lot of much physical for some time. Consequently the Canal and River Trust had placed about 30 signs around the 2 main pools about the dangers of.....mud - the same mud that has been on show for nearly 6 months The laminated signs are not only unsightly but unneccersary and of little practical use - ironically a bit like most CRT operatives that i bump into A pity they couldn't have done something useful and pick up some of the long discarded detritus that is now exposed but that is too much like hard work. Needless to say that within 24 hours most of the signs littered the shoreline so i dutifully picked them up and removed the others en route otherwise they too would meet a watery grave. I left the stakes in-situ as perches for the many Black Terns and Little Gulls that will use them as perches in the coming days:eek!:

I clocked an adult Little Ringed Plover which got flushed by a local but instead of flying off it flew, called several times, then proceeded to carry out a 'butterfly' display flight over the area before returning to the same spot. I presume it is some sort of pre-nuptial activity before it actually breeds somewhere - i can assure you that it has no chance at that particular locale. I returned via the Ravens to see the male alighting with a full crop, he is in outer primary moult with a feather missing on each wing.

After breakfast and off to Grimmers at 10am.....

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: the CRT wasting boaters funds as only they know how to and the rather smart LRP...