Stilts

 Yesterday (the  26th) an impromptu after work birding trip with my brother David saw us catching up with Frampton Marsh's breeding Black-winged Stilts. Blessed as we were with some evening sunshine on our walk it was good to see these rare but increasing visitors to the UK. Although we didn't hang around for too long we were treated to a decent supporting cast as well as those leggy scene stealing stars of the show.

Little Ringed Plover, Ruff and Avocet chick

From next to the closed visitor centre (well we were a little on the late side!) we saw a few waders such as Little Ringed Plovers, a Green Sandpiper, some cracking looking Ruffs and the usual Black-tailed Godwits. A short stroll gave us a slightly different perspective and enabled us to see both a Spoonbill and a distant stilt. From the 360 hide we were treated to a horde of Avocets with young of varying ages and also a please number of juvenile Black-headed Gulls. It looks as if they haven't completely escaped the ill effects of the current bird flu epidemic here but the number of young was encouraging.

Black-winged Stilts

In the hide we received some good gen relating to the whereabouts of the stilt family and so armed set out to find them. Luckily it didn't take too long to catch up with two adults and a chick though they often disappeared into vegetation and were lost from view. Once we'd enjoyed reasonable views we started our walk back to the car. Close views of a couple of feeding Spoonbills were reason enough to pause while a Curlew called as it passed over. Another diversion was a male Ruff that still retained most of its breeding plumage and looked rather fine as it fed close by. The need to get some dinner was reason enough to leave soon afterwards, what a nice way to work up an appetite.

Spoonbills.