After the wardens and volunteers suffered in the rain on Friday, it's actually been an incredibly warm and sunny weekend. The weather hasn't reduced our wader numbers at all, and the lagoon is still home to hundreds of small and medium-sized waders including Knot, Sanderling, Redshank, Dunlin, Ringled Plover, Curlew, 3 Spotted Redshank and a single Pectoral Sandpiper. There's a good number of juveniles, and most of the birds are in very different stages of moult, so it's a great chance to get used to seeing how birds like Knot and Dunlin look in a whole range of different plumages. There's a selection below- see how many you can identify!
The big flocks of waders attracted several birds of prey, a female Sparrowhawk headed over from the plantation early on and caused a bit of chaos, as did a couple of buzzards. Then, as I was hiding in the grass trying to photgraph Sanderling, this Peregrine took a run at the flock of waders before stooping at something it saw hiding in the grass....
I got a very close up view of beak and talons before the Peregrine realised I was probably a bit bigger than its usual prey and made a swift exit. Hard to know which one of us was more surprised to be honest! Safely back at the centre out of Peregrine range, we also had a Little Stint, another Spotted Flycatcher on the wires, the yellow-tagged Marsh Harrier and a couple of Ospreys. The new ponies are also fairly easy to see (although quite distant- best to bring binoculars) from the centre and Tower Pool Hide, the black stallion often stands slightly apart with his mare, and the young colts are usually mixed in amongst our exisiting herd.