2nd September: Ditchling Dotterel

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 A very exciting find for us this morning! A small party of three Dotterel were reported yesterday evening on Ditchling Beacon and we had arranged to meet Sue M up there at 8 o’clock this morning. At 7.10 a message on the local WhatsApp group indicated there was no sign of the birds, but having already made arrangements, and with a gloriously sunny morning we headed across anyway. There were plenty of Wheatear around and the views in the morning light were magnificent. Sue showed us where the birds had been located yesterday and we scanned the field carefully, but were only able to locate a family of Red-legged Partridge.

We were meeting friends at 10, so parted company with Sue and started back to the car. We paused to admire a couple of Wheatear which posed beautifully on nearby posts. Then in the next field I scanned the muddy ridges and could just make out a clump that looked like a bird. We set up the scopes and Tim was able to make out a pale stripe on the head. We had managed to relocate the missing birds! We moved to another path where the light allowed much better views and were thrilled to study these lovely birds at relatively close range. We have never seen these in the UK before, and our previous sighting in Hungary was very distant, so it was a very satisfying morning’s work!



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