Saturday, April 3

Have you missed me?

If you visit regularly you may have noticed things have been quiet on both this and our weather blog for a little while.

We spent the last week in Dorset which means not only have the blogs been quiet but activity in the garden and on the plot has ground to a halt too.

The weather diary will be up to date soon but the March diary on the website is now complete with a very short entry for the last week or so.

Just to pad it out I decided to bore everyone by including some holiday photos too!  Click here to vist the diary entry.

And can any of you bird experts identify the birds in this photo? The nearest I can get is I think they may be juvenile ring plovers. I'm afraid the photo isn't as clear as it should be as the birds were some distance away and with a gale force wind and freezing cold hands the camera shook a bit!

They were on Hurst Spit on the Solent where the coastal area was quite shingly - which is apparently the type of habitat plovers like!

Please post a message if you can confirm their identity.




After advice from the bird detectives I think we can safely say that the birds are Ruddy Turnstones (thanks Damo and Amanda).

9 comments:

  1. Ringed Plovers have an orange beak with just a black tip, not sure if a juvenile is any different.
    Are they Little Ringed Plovers ?
    They have black beaks

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  2. No idea what the bird is but good to have you back...oh and I checked out the greenhouse moving photo...I have a friend with a car...all we have to do is figure out how to get the greenhouse up the steps!!!!

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  3. My guess is a Ruddy Turnstone - http://www.avianweb.com/images/birds/turnstone/turnstone.jpg I'm no twitcher though, the only book I have has b/w drawings rather than colour photos.

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  4. That's funny I saw it and thought Turnstone (we live in Turnstone Close!) butI'm not 100% sure. I think they like shingle shores, nice photo and I hope you enjoyed your holiday.

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  5. I found this photo link http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44064000/jpg/_44064372_turnstone_rspb416300.jpg

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  6. I've no idea what the birds are, but glad you enjoyed your holiday.

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  7. Zeb Little Ringed Plovers are more rare aren't they - well so it says in my book. The problem is even on the RSPB website there are no photos of juveniles.
    Tanya Another method used was chain gang - large men at each corner but again no glass.
    Damo & 8x6 Having checked the photo on the website - I think you may be right with the Ruddy Turnstone. Not sure if the link you posted is full 8x6 as it won't let me access. Damos was cut short but I got there in the end
    Jo Thanks just needed less rain really.

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  8. Managed to access the photo via my email 8x6 so I think with that and Damos photo we can settle on Ruddy Turnstones.

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  9. glad we got a positive ID, I'll look out for them next time I'm down there, didn't fancy it this weekend as it was blowing a gale.

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