I've somehow managed to coincide my first visit to the Meadow for about a week with the arrival of some decent weather at last. When I left it was depressingly cold and grey and I understand that whilst I've been away it's been very windy. Today by contrast it was sunny with only a gentle spring breeze. The floods were looking good this evening and in the company of Tom Wickens there were plenty of birds to look through. For a start there were the two AVOCETS which turned up earlier this week. It's been a great spring for this lovely wader - normally we're lucky if we get one sighting at all in a year but we've now had eight of them so far. On the plover front there was a single LITTLE RINGED PLOVER and four RINGED PLOVER and other waders included 8 REDSHANK, 1 OYSTERCATCHER, 6 DUNLIN and 5 BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. Pick of the waders tonight though was a fly-over GREEN SANDPIPER (a year tick) that Tom had before I'd arrived. On the duck front four SHELDUCK were about and there are still plenty of Teal and reasonable numbers of Wigeon and a few Shoveler to look through though all the Pintail have now departed. The gull roost was a quite frankly pathetic affair but given the nice weather I wouldn't have expected much anyway. With the spring passage now starting to get into its stride it's going to be an exciting time over the next couple of months on the Meadow.
Tonight's Little Ringed Plover - one of my favourite Meadow species
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