Wednesday May 13

A perfectly still evening tempted me back to the patch. I arrived later than usual, thinking that maybe some crepuscular species might make themselves known before it got dark.

In the event it was diurnal migrants which stole the show. To start with, a single female Wheatear was a little less shy than they usually are.

A female Wheatear

It has been an odd spring for Wheatears, generally rather poor in April, but with more birds lingering in May. Most of the usual warblers sang, including two Sedge Warblers, but no Reed Warblers. A Roebuck stalked the hedge-line on the far side of the pool.

The pool itself contained seven Tufted Ducks, and three Coots, but there was no sign of the Little Grebes.

So to the flashes where the star bird was waiting to be found. Two plovers were feeding on the mud of the nearest flash. Was one bigger than the other? It certainly was.

Ringed and Little Ringed Plover

The Ringed Plover was the fourth record for the patch, and the first since 2013. It wasn't an especially striking one, probably a female, and none of my photos do it justice. I have picked the one which shows a size comparison with the LRP (on the right). There were actually two Little Ringed Plovers as well as the Ringed Plover, and I also noticed that the drake Teal was still present.

I headed back as the sun dipped below the horizon, and sadly saw no Owls at all.

PS I have now had further feedback from Eddie Bird. He also ringed the adult male of the pair now attempting to breed here. As I had suspected, it is an older bird than the Mute Swan which was at the dragonfly pools. It had been ringed as a young adult at Arrow Valley Lake on 1 Nov 2005, so is a real local boy, and has been seen at Morton Bagot previously on 24 June 2011, and 24 March 2013 (presumably by me), and finally at Arrow Valley Lake again on 14 Jan 2014 when it was paired to 5 SJ. It will be interesting to see if the female is that bird when she finally gets off her nest.