Plovers Last Hurrah and a First Rara

Not at Blashford yesterday but up in the far north of the county, a land of red kites and unreasonable amounts of that"strange beverage that falls down from the sky". I don't think I have been that wet since the last time I fell in!

The little ringed plover nest at the Tern hide is empty, the eggs gone and the same has happened to the nest to the east of the hide as well, they will not try again this year. So, as it was not going to cause any disturbance to nesting birds we went and cleared the fire site, associated rubbish and a good lot of the vegetation that had been threatening to block the view of the shore from the hide. Once again it was amazing what a group of a dozen or so can achieve in a relatively short time, we also cleared the ragwort for the car park area. Of course, as today was Thursday, the "we" referred to were the Blashford volunteers.


The shore being clear meant that I could get a picture of the one wader nesting success of the summer, the fledgling lapwing.
In other news, an adult Mediterranean gull was on Iblsey Water as were over 400 herring gulls, but no sign of any more interesting species that I could see.

Record of the day was a soldier-fly that came to the moth trap, Oxycera rara aka the four-barred major (although I don't think I will ever get used to using that name). I am pretty sure this will be a new record for Blashford, it is not a rare species but is never common.