Spot the dot

What an afternoon! But first let me report on yesterday's events. On a stroll down to our local river I was relieved to see that the pied flycatcher pair was still around despite plenty of noise from bank holiday visitors. As I scanned the shingle banks I spotted a common sandpiper just beyond a pied and grey wagtail. I quickly made my way around the back of it and approached it with my belly-crawl technique. Turned out a pair of them were present and enjoyed a preen together. Afterwards I walked to a spot on the river where Dave and I had seen a kingfisher a few times recently. I hunkered myself down in the shadow of a few big boulders on the river bank and waited. Not soon after I was rewarded by the appearance of a kingfisher in what seems to be the usual spot but unfortunately it was soon spooked by one of the grazing horses. We will certainly keep an eye on this area from now.

 

Now on to today. Yesterday dotterel were reported from Ynyslas but due to work commitments we could not go for them until this afternoon. Dave picked me up from the Borth train station and we meant to park by the railway crossing but due to road works our usual spot was taken and we had to park by the golf course and walk quite a bit. What a chore! Or so we thought. As we walked we kept scanning the fields and at the end spotted a yellow wagtail feeding distantly amongst the sheep in a muddy bit. A year tick! Approaching our target area we got another unexpected bonus in the form of a distantly calling cuckoo. First scans of the prominent field didn't reveal anything until we saw a bird with a dark belly moving around in the far distance. Turned out three dotterel - two female and one male - were still present. The birds slowly moved closer to us so we sat down in the sunshine and enjoyed the scene. On the way back to the car we got lots of wheatear in the fields which must have been brought out by the warm sun. One very inquisitive female allowed me this photo opportunity. A lifer, two year ticks and a nice photo opportunity. I'll never moan about walking again.

 

 

Another nice addition to the day and my yearlist is the return of the male yellowhammer just now as I was uploading today's photos. Up until now both male and female have only made appearances when I was away and ever since we went to Pembrokeshire for a couple of days we have not seen them at all.