Waders' Nests

Walking below the point on the upper beach where we had seen the second ringed plovers' nest with its four eggs - see earlier post here - we spotted one of the parents amongst the dried seaweed who....

....promptly settled on the nest. It was so good to see this as the tracks of several dogs ran up towards the immediate area.

While we were watching we spotted another ringed plover further back along the beach, where we had seen the single egg abandoned, so it's possible that this first nest is active again.

A little further along the beach we saw three plovers engrossed in each other. Look closely and it seems that two of them are displaying to the third, presumably a female, so we may have yet another plovers' nest on this section of the beach.

While we were watching them we became aware of an oystercatcher standing on the pebbles at the very top of the storm beach, as if it was on guard and, sure enough....

....we caught sight of a second, further along, which duly settled on a nest.

At least now we were well aware of the location of the nest so were able to approach it without getting too close and disturbing the parents unduly. The nest can be seen at bottom right of the above picture and....

....it contained three lovely eggs. These have to be incubated for around a month.

We've seen oystercatchers prepare their nests - if that's what you can call them - in the most stupid of places. This pair have done relatively well except that they are very close to a point where there is a car park and access to the beach. Few humans are using it at the moment but this may change.