Time for a Chat

It has been a slow and cold Spring so far but most of the summer migrants have now arrived.Last week I returned to the Bowland Fells to catch up with a stonechat seen on my previous visit.The pair of stonechats had obviously nested close to the roadside and I was fortunate to be able to photograph the male bird returning with a small caterpillar for his brood.All the images were obtained without leaving the car and I was very pleased with the results.

The whinchat was photographed down on the coast near Cockerham.I had visited the area with Mike and we had gone in the hope of seeing the five dotterel found the previous day.The dotterel had flown before we arrived and none of the few dozen birders in the area refound them whilst we were there.It was nice though to see whinchats flitting about on the roadside posts.There were possibly two males and a female in the area and I managed one or two hurriedly taken shots as the birds were constantly disturbed by passing traffic.On arrival back home we discovered that the five dotterel had in fact returned mid afternoon. I understand that they left again in the evening on their long flight north to probably the Cairngorms.I hope to catch up with dotterel again next Spring.In the meantime hope you enjoy the whinchat and stonechat images shown above and thanks for looking in.