Little Ringed Plover
Unlike the Ringed Plover, which sticks to the coast, the Little Ringed Plover is more of an inland bird, preferring to inhabit gravel pits and the like. Key identification points to separate it from the Ringed Plover includes, a yellow circle around the eye, pale legs (Ringed Plovers have orange) and a single colour bill.
The two I spied were fledglings and tiny ones at that. They were also extremely fast, so it was hard to get good shots of them. They are summer visitors, typically arriving in March, before heading home in July. I was clearly lucky to spot these two then as another weekend and they could have been gone.
I think this is one of the adults.
A fairly heavy crop.
Here's a size comparison next to some Tufted Ducks.
With the Little Ringed Plover I'm now up to 135 photographed birds with another 137 left to find.
Here's a selection of the other birds I saw at Blashford.
A baby Oystercatcher was one of the highlights.
Here it is feeding with its parent.
The parents were always near by.
The young were rarely out in the open.
And were great at hiding when they wanted to.
There were plenty of Common Terns about.
There were several nests, but they were in the distance on man-made rafts.
Baby blue Tits were using the feeders.
Or simply sitting pretty.
Baby Great Tits were also out in force.
Chaffinches were happy to use the feeder.
A scruffy Blue Tit.
Gold Finch stops by for some seeds.
Cut off this Collard Dove's tail. Doh.
Happier with this one though.
Could do with losing the branches on this one.
A Sparrowhawk crashed the party but I was so excited I couldn't get a non blurred shot :(
Grebes were on the lakes with young.
Coot young were out and about.
The adult soon took over the nest though.
Mute swan goslings were out and about.
Another Little Ringed Plover shot.
A Great Crested Grebe after a dive.
Little Grebe with snack.
A Kingfisher finished off the day.
