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Saturday, June 22, 2019

Fly Flatts , too hot to handle.

                                   2 of 3 Dunlin present but hard to locate
                     The always mobile Ringed Plover





                  Cold Edge Short Eared Owl.


A reasonable morning with 80% cloud cover on a SE>3 but by late afternoon conditions were poor with only 40% cloud cover and hot sunshine on a very light SE>2 with shoreline visibility cut down due to a mass of heat distortion. As usual, the sun brought out the sun worshipers with picnickers on the west bank and just as I arrived the Dingle family were walking on the south shore which flushed 15 Lapwing and 2 small waders that flew high and fast away >W, possibly the other 2 Dunlin with only 3 of the 5 found today?
                                          With off lead dogs, bikes and joggers I gave it a quick look at and an early finish getting back to do a bit of dog grooming.
                                           The morning watch proved slightly better but even by early morning the heat shimmer was present and most of the birds were head in wing sleeping through it. The Ringed Plover was active but the 3 remaining Dunlins hardly moved throughout the day.
                                             Scanning the east shore from the NW corner produced 2 male and 1 female Teal along with the usual Common Sandpipers and Redshank with 174 big gulls on the north bank.
On the way home a Short Eared Owl was quartering fields on Cold Edge road.
A promise of back to cloudy and showers tomorrow, my sort of weather, may even get a Scoter.
BS