Any recent visitors to Frampton Marsh will have noticed some cute and fluffy looking avocet chicks strutting about. Whilst carrying out some jobs on the scrapes I noticed a rather distressed adult avocet, alarm-calling in flight. I thought nothing of it and assumed that it was complaining about its noisy neighbours, the black-headed gulls!
I then walked into to the 360-degree hide and much to my surprise there was an avocet chick bumbling around inside! It seemed to be somewhat confused as it was running around in frantic circles. Presumably it wasn’t there to do any birding! Luckily two of Frampton’s regular photographers were in the hide at the time and had seen the rest of the brood on the habitat. However, its siblings were on the other side of a steep embankment!I walked towards it in an attempt to herd it back to safety; it then decided to run down the footpath at full speed and in the opposite direction to its family. I ran after it, it then hunkered down into a tussock of grass making it easy to pick up. I put it as close to the other chicks as was possible. Much to my comfort its mother had appeared next to it - what a relief!
The chick turned out to be an insurgent hired by some black-headed gulls to spy on its fellow avocets (hence the reason it was found in the hide). He has recently withdrawn his loyalty to the enemy and sworn an oath to his fellow avocets to never be a double agent for the gulls again!
If you haven’t seen young avocet yet, come on down to Frampton! We are also carrying out a ‘baby bird walk’ on Sunday the 9th of June!
Jim Shaw – Volunteer Trainee Warden
John, don't tempt fate. We'll be having abandoned babies there next!!
I wonder what that was that just flew past??