A full day on the East coast looking for dotterel nests and watching Fairy Tern, Oystercatcher, pied stilts and Caspian Tern.Another season begins as nest scrapes are set down and courtship displays entertain.
This dotterel had an amazingly well concealed nest. Rather than the usual shallow scrape in open sand and I was only able to detect it by watching the parent bird for sometime.
It was not the usual dotterel with alarms and feigning death and broken wings to distract. It was quiet and just went around in a few circles then eventually settled onto its nest which had three eggs.
The Fairy Tern seemed to to have some courtship display chasing high into the sky then settling back onto the sand away from each other.
The male then catching a fish in return for the chance to mate. I guess that is the Fairy Tern male way of gaining brownie points.
I rather like it except that I've never really been any good at catching fish.
It is good to be back and to enjoy another season of friendship shared on our beautiful East coast beaches.
