Day of The Little Ringed Plovers

There were no less than TWELVE Little Ringed Plovers on Black Hole Marsh this afternoon. A patch record count! At one time this afternoon Gav and I saw all twelve on one small patch of mud, quite an unusual sight. We tried to get of photo of all twelve together but I hadn't got my super-zoom with me, which would be the right tool for the job. Gav had his with him and may have got a decent shot of them all. One thing's for sure though it will be better than mine.

There are twelve Little ringed Plovers on the middle island in this photo...you'll have to take my word for it though. Even though it's a huge picture when opened you will probably only see four or five...who am I kidding? You'll be lucky to see any!

Seven of them actually visible in this photo.

A few came near enough to be digiscoped.... 

Whilst at Black Hole Marsh I also added three ticks to my patch photo year-list, firstly I finally caught up with the pair of Gadwall which have been knocking around for a while.

No. 74 Gadwall

No.75 Green Sandpiper

No.76 Sparrowhawk

This Sparrowhawk flew down along the perimeter of the marsh, probably looking for tired and hungry Chiffchaffs to feast on. There are just so many of them, they're everywhere! I had three hopping around on my lawn first thing this morning and one was even investigating one of my bird feeders. It such a sad sight to see them struggling in the cold with no prospect of the weather improving anytime soon.

There was also a Female Pintail on BHM and a few Wheatears a single Dunlin and a couple of Ringed Plovers. Among the usual selection of ducks and geese (Mallards, Shelduck and Canada) were a good number of Teal which were a bit on the frisky side despite the not so spring-like conditions.

Finally another photo year-tick from my garden...

No.77 Starling