With warm sunny weather and little breeze, it was a pleasant walk across the causeway. I checked out the gulls and found a yellow legged gull on one of the rafts, alongside some cormorants, then further along, a small group of waders contained a couple of ringed plovers, a sanderling and a dunlin.
Having attempted a few photos, I then progressed to the Shrike meadow hide, where, as expected several other birders were poised with lenses at the ready, waiting for the arrival of one of two juvenile kingfishers. I heard that there had been already two visits to the perching post this morning, so settled down to wait. Just in front of me a couple of red admiral butterflies were nectaring, and a reed warbler had a nest just visible in the reeds in front of the hide, which it kept returning to. I don't know if it had young in there, I couldn't hear any cheeping.
After an hour's wait, everyone in the hide suddenly pointed their lenses towards the perching post; a kingfisher had arrived and was posing nicely for photos. Suddenly it flew off onto a nearby branch where it again waited, before diving into the water and returning to its original perch. It then flew off, only to return a few minutes later. There was the constant noise of cameras clicking for a short time, before it left again.
I decided not to wait any longer, but made my way slowly back along the causeway to the car. An enjoyable couple of hours.
kingfisher
reed warbler nest just visible through the reeds
yellow legged gulls on raft
waders - sanderling, dunlin and ringed plovers
sanderling
ringed plover
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