I received a call from Brett on Saturday about a juvenile American Golden Plover that Darah had found at Lodmoor RSPB. I was just setting out for my game at Bridport FC and could not make the trip to Lodmoor. My parting line was "I hoped the bird stuck around until after the weekend". I also had a game on Sunday which was more suited to ducks than footballers!
I was up at early ish o clock and made my way to Lodmoor in heavy rain. This was supposed to stop after 0800 therefore I was not too troubled by this. It was still raining when I arrived and I started to get a bit worried!
I walked the north path hoping a Bittern would grace me with its presence but this was not to be. I noted a large flock of Golden Plover were circling the reserve losing height with every completed circuit. The birds eventually came to rest on the west scrape and were close by. I negotiated the path that was littered with passerines including Blackbird that were feeding on the ground.
After some searching I located the American Golden Plover which was pretty aggressive towards the other plover around it. The bird was smaller than its European Counterpart and noticeably greyer with a prominent supercillial stripe behind the eye.
I secured some shots and then put the news out. The flock became very restless taking to the skies several times before splitting up and settling. The bird was seen once more before it was lost to view. I met up with Bob Ford to discuss bird tours and hopefully get Bob onto the bird. This was the largest Golden Plover flock I had seen at Lodmoor and numbers were estimated at over 700 during the day.
Numbers grew as the morning progressed but despite many pairs of eyes fixed on the flocks the plover was not re located.
I remained on site until dusk once again in the hope of spying a Bittern through the rain showers. A female Goosander dropped in during one downpour! Note the thick neck and base to bill and white patch under the chin!
Early starts are paying dividends at the moment!
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