As a break from the wall-to-wall media coverage of the royal family, I enjoyed a lazy afternoon at North Cave Wetlands. It felt like the last day of summer: warm, slightly hazy, with the last few swallows and martins dipping over the water. There were lots of waders about: redshank, spotted redshank, greenshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, snipe, ruff, curlew and black tailed godwit. A water rail skulking in the reeds would have usually have been the best sighting, but today’s highlight was a pair of whinchats which - together with a pair of whitethroats - were gorging themselves on elderberries. When I called in at the last hide, after my walk around the reserve, there were about a dozen people inside. They were spellbound by the sight of a kingfisher fishing in the shallows, and returning after each catch to the same perch, no more than five yards away. The kingfisher flew away, the people tiptoed out and, after watching a dabchick feeding its young, I headed home…
Whinchat (image via Creative Commons)...
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