Peckish - Sightings, 20 June

For the wild, summer provides a feast! For once there’s enough food not only for the adults but also for the next generation. At Old Moor right now, that new generation seems to be just about everywhere – and always hungry.

Here is today’s summary of sightings…

Around the Mere, the black-headed gull chicks are growing up fast and no wonder as they seem to spend a lot of time calling to be fed! Some look very close to fledging now.

How quickly they grow!

On the Field Pool, one of the pairs of little grebe have three young and have taken to feeding them close to the hide. The boldest of the three will swim impatiently out to meet a returning parent and of course, get a bigger share of the food!

Little grebe and an impatient chick from Ian Morris. Thanks Ian.

Some of the young birds are less dependent. At Wath Ings this afternoon visitors watched what - at first glance - looked like an abandoned duckling. It swam along the shoreline of the main marsh with no parents anywhere close by.

Then we noticed how well this tiny bird was feeding, diving down and coming up with huge quantities of food. Although young, it was more than capable of looking after itself.

An independent pochard duckling

News from the Wader Scrape today (as well as those godwits) was that the avocets also seemed to be trying to raise a family. A good guess would be that these are birds from elsewhere in the valley who are trying for a second brood.

Black-tailed godwits and behind them, a sitting avocet!

But today’s most remarkable sighting was that of a little ringed plover who chose to feed about as close as a plover can get to the hide. These are tiny waders – barely 14cm long – that feed on insects and invertebrates that they find around the edges of lakes and ponds.

To have such close views of this bird was fantastic and a real chance to watch its hunting technique. Not very scientific I know, but for me there is something very comical about these birds. Their tiny legs blur as they dash after every fly and bug with those large, cartoon-like eyes coming in very handy for locating their next meal.

A little ringed plover hunting around the Scrape this afternoon

And sadly, that’s about for this evening but the weekend is not far off and the weather forecast for the Dearne Valley looks great. All this talk of food has made me peckish - I’m off for a sandwich!