Friday 22 May 2009

100!

I have now finished school forever so I now have more time to go birding. This morning I went to the Blyth Estuary with Steve H.
The tide was low and there were plenty of waders on the mud. In total we had 222 Ringed Plovers, only 6 Curlew, 26 Dunlin and 8 Shellduck.
A pair of Shellduck swimming on the water had 9 young with them. They swam up the river in a straight line before landing on the bank.
Later on we noticed the adult Shellduck chasing a Carrion Crow. The crow was trying to take one of the chicks but another adult Shellduck flew over from the other side of the estuary and helped the parents, which eventually chased the crow off for good.

The Ringed Plovers were scattered all over the estuary and on every piece of exposed mud groups of 20+ could be seen.
We also checked the Bates Filtration Pools further up the path but only a singing Sedge Warbler and Moorhen were about.

On the way home we checked West Hartford. Just before we got to the pool a Juv Peregrine- Patch Tick, flew low overhead.
The Peregrine was a light brown on its under and upper side and was low down enough to see the black markings on its face.
It drifted towards the group of Lapwings in the fields near the farm at East Hartford.
I have never had such good views of a Peregrine and I could now see how broad winged and tailed it is compared to other birds of prey.

100- Peregrine Falcon

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