A very foggy start to the morning with heavy rain then drizzle. The fog soon lifted and mid watch the rain eased off leaving decent conditions with a good full cover grey sky on a N>3.
By late afternoon the wind had turned and strengthened to W>5 and rain showers.
One of those mornings when I thought," Do I really want to do Fly Flatts in this weather", but curiosity got the better of me so it was on with my birding head and away.
On arrival the fog was down but I could tell by the sky that it was only thin stuff and with the help of the heavy rain it would soon clear.
First job was to scope an interesting area of shore where the Common Sand chicks had shown and through the murky mist I soon picked one up as well as the adults and one of the usual Ringed Plover pair. Next thing in the scope was a bigger chick darting along the waters edge probing as it went into the fog. A call of a Dunlin gave me a clue and after getting a new position I got a well grown juv Dunlin with an adult nearby.
I,ve been watching a pair of Dunlin for quite a while visiting the water either together or separate and always flying back to the moor where I could sometimes see them through the scope as if on watch. The last few times I saw them they were going through the chick protection ritual but then all went quiet and I started to think they had failed and moved on.
That was until this morning when a single juv proved my suspicion of breeding.
Its very unusual to see a Dunlin chick as they usually keep on the moor until fledged and can even leave the area without being seen. A few years back I was lucky to get a shot of a very young chick in the same area but only the once.
This juv is very near, or already fledged but I,ve yet to see it fly. This mornings brief sighting only saw is darting about among the reeds where it disappeared not to be relocated.
The afternoon visit was a disaster with just time to check the same area, with no sign of the Dunlin ,when, the strengthened wind tempted windsurfers to appear and launch from the shore that I was watching. After warning them about the presence of chicks it was up stumps and an early bath.
On the way home I checked through around 100 Starlings in the Nolstar fields but nothing came up Rosy.
Fly Flatts
2 Ringed Plover
5 Common Sandpiper + chicks
1 ad Dunlin + 1 juv
12 LBB gull
3 Red Legged Partridge
+ usual sp.
BS