Roosting Nightjar & Lytchett Fields

This morning 9yh July I headed over to the cafe at RSPB Arne to catch up with a Nightjar that as been roosting in a large oak tree in the cafe garden for the past 7-10 days. There can not be many places were you can grab a coffee and watch a nightjar.
The bird is very well camourflaged and hard to find but with plenty of people about and BirdsofPoolHarbour there it was easy to find with being pointed in the right direction.
My thanks to Paul Morton of BirdsofPooleHarbour for using is scope to get the top picture with my phone.

Nightjar taken through a Kowa scope with a Galaxy j5 phone

Nightjar taken through a Celestron scope with a Galaxy j5 phone

This is a male bird which you can tell by the white under tail tips and white wing flashes when it moves. It is most likely a failed breeder and as been pushed out of the heath and on to the hedge area. It as now been roosting in the large oak tree of the RSPB Arne cafe for around 7-10 days now.

After watching the now famous Nightjar form he terrace of the Arne cafe I made my way to Lytchett Fields with hope of catching up with some new birds.

This place never disappoints me out of Sherford Pools there were 270 Black-tailed Godwits some in very wonderful breeding plumage they looked stunning.

I scanned this field thoroughly but could not find anything new so switched to French’s view point and started scanning the field held a few Shelduck, 14 Lapwing

one singing Reed Warbler. Then I notice a small bird scurry across the mud, I get the scope on it and there is not one but two plover now at a distance, young little ringed plovers,

though at first I was a bit confused with them. As they were very pale brown almost beige like, struggled to find any yellow orbital ring, as I said the upper parts with very pale brown/beige colour a white collar at the back of the head nap area and the head was the same colour, but had a black smudge round the eye, had a thin black bill with a tiny white patch above the bill/on the forehead area.

under parts were white and had dark/black legs which I put down to being covered in mud? They ran quickly a bit like sanderling and stopped picked and the ground then ran some more.

So when I got home I looked through my books and came to the conclusion they were juvenile Little Ringed Plovers, but the dark legs did throw me off a bit.

 

On the way back up Slough lane I came across a grey wagtail feeding on the flies in the large puddle by the over hanging scrub willow.

These two birds bring my species list for the site up to 103 and a point score for the patch work challenge to 121, roll on the autumn.

One of the many summer plumage Black-tailed Godwits