A fantastic weekend of passage waders - up to 10 species present on monday - was topped by the appearance of a wryneck on tuesday. A truly fantastic bird. Described by my colleague Paul as "like a squashed bittern", this small camoflagued migrant woodpecker is now a very rare visitor to the UK in spring and has attracted quite a few local birders. It has spent most of its time eating ants in the edge of one of the fields nr little hanger hide.
Back to those waders - usual residents/breeding birds such as lapwing, redshank and little ringed plover were joined by 3 spotted redshank, several greenshank, common sandpiper, dunlin, 2 or 3 wood sandpiper, several whimbrel, bar-tailed godwit and ringed plover. A particularly obliging pair of lapwings have brought their brood of 4 tiny chicks onto the pool in front of west mead hide. See the photo - believe it or not, the female is brooding all 4 chicks.