What started off as a sleepy late afternoon watch at Fly Flatts, with bright but overcast skies at 15 degrees and hardly a breeze from the south, turned out to be a cracking finish to the month when I spotted a wader over the water looking larger than a Common Sand. I got the bins on it to find it was a Plover type and no wing bars meaning a rare bird for this location, Little Ringed Plover.
The bird was circuiting the water mid height but very fast and zig zaggy so with fear of it leaving I risked taking my eye off it and grabbing the camera for a record shot. I then swapped back to the bins in hope of seeing where it landed but it was joined by another 2 which kept moving round at a great rate of knots but I soon found out why.
As they were looking like landing in the SE corner a brown raptor skimmed through the middle of them splitting them up and sending them skyward very high and away >NW. I then grabbed the camera again concentrating on what I thought was a female Merlin as it rocketed away >N but looking at the pics it was a brown juv Peregrine hence the half hearted attempt to take one of them. Merlins don,t give up that easy and lock onto the bird chasing them for several minutes.
With 12 Ringed Plover counted together at one point last year I only got 1 quick sighting of a Little Ringed and this is the usual occurrence each year so a pleasing result.
April went out with a bang wader wise with a mega day today. Not counting Snipe, Lapwing, Golden Plover and Curlew my wader count for today at Fly Flatts was :-
11 Dunlin
10 Common Sandpiper
6 Redshank
3 Little Ringed Plovers
2 Oystercatchers
and several Common Sands and Dunlin on the north shore but uncountable scoping at that distance into the heat shimmer.
Plus a first Swift today as a bonus.
Ringed Plover next then its anybodies guess to what will turn up plus I,m waiting for that Osprey over anytime now.
BS