A very wet morning at Fly Flatts with early torrential rain then light rain throughout on a cold SW>3
at 10 degrees with fog banks moving through.
A real bad start to the morning with the first scan of the SE shore finding the 7 day old Ringed Plover chick dead with the adult female by its side still protecting it and keeping other waders away. I later inspected the chick which had no predator signs but was saturated after the heavy rain and unless it had a health problem ,which is unlikely as it was very lively and feeding yesterday, I suspect it just succumbed to the Fly Flatts weather getting so wet and cold with no feather protection.
Otherwise it was down to the usual species with a good count of Dunlin, which were mostly on the north shore again, along with yesterdays juv Ringed Plover.
A mid afternoon visit to check the north shore once the mist had cleared and rain passed over found it alive with Dunlin dashing about on the mud like mice.
The poor female Ringed Plover was still dashing around by the dead chick protecting it and scattering the Dunlins. Going by what happened last year , as soon as they lost the second brood of chicks the pair left the area.
18 Dunlin
3 ad Common Sandpipers + 2 juvs
1 pr Ringed Plover + 1 juv
2 Curlew
4 Redshank + 3 juv
2 Oystercatchers
3 Snipe
1 ad Wheatear + 1 juv
2 Raven
sev Swifts................>S
+ usual sp
BS