Tags
beach birding, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Charadrius hiaticula, Ringed plover, Sully birds
Ringed plovers are not common on my local patch. In fact, the only place I see them is amongst the rocks on Sully beach, and that’s exactly where these 15 were perched, snoozing, preening, balancing on one spindly looking leg, when I walked along the beach last week.
A Wheatear (right, front) shares the limelight with these 2 Ringed plovers.
Though their scientific name, Charadrius hiaticula, is a bit of a tongue-twister, they have, according to my Fauna Britannica, some wonderful vernacular names: bull’s-eye (Ireland); dulwilly and grundling (Lancashire); ringlestone (Yorkshire); sand tripper (County Down); shell-turner (Sussex); and wideawake (Somerset), to list just a few.
When I first saw a Buzzard on the ground like this but couldn’t see any sign of it having caught any prey, I wondered if it might be ill. My fellow birders quickly put me right – the Buzzard was probably worming. I never thought a bird of prey would eat something so tiny as an earthworm but needs must when prey is hard to find, or catch. And, indeed, I could see that the end of this bird’s beak was a bit grubby with soil. It was fascinating to watch, especially as the Magpies sneakily tried to pinch what the Buzzard was finding.
earthstar 
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