Sunday 27 March 2016

The Lord of the 'Ringed'

Easter Sunday was not a day intended for a Blog Post given the weather forecast and that which had gone before overnight. It had seemed that the near gale force winds and occasional showers during the hours of darkness were bad enough, but then came daybreak, a full hour earlier than what we have been used to. The precise second the torrential stuff started, driven even harder by a much increased wind, is well remembered as the very second we stepped from Slight Return II to embark on monitoring the Moth Traps, an exercise which was quickly abandoned until later in the day. It was possible to watch each rain filled 'front' roll in from the direction of the English Channel, just a few miles away, while to make matters worse even the short periods of sunshine were blinding!  So, in a nutshell not at all conducive with Bird Watching. However, those of us 'addicted' to such things were not deterred but only finding a 'partner' Coot which had arrived on the Gravel Pit overnight to join the long-stayer and a lone Green Sandpiper in the Puddle of Mud we turned for home. En-route, the large Solar Panel Compound proved to be too much of a temptation and even while twiddling with the combination lock the call of a   
 LITTLE RINGED PLOVER
 
 was heard
 but took a further full 10 minutes to locate.
 IT'S RAINING!
What followed was the inspiration for this Extra Post
 a chance to share
the return of this fantastic little bird!
The only interruption to this
 was what was thought to be an arrival of
MEADOW PIPIT

with attention being diverted for no more than a couple of minutes.
Although this Little Beauty was initially located on 'call' it was, after
being sighted totally mute save for a single 'call' that can be heard on
this clip.
It is hoped you enjoy this as much as we did even though
Not in the Flesh!