The four strong brood of Black-winged Stilts are doing well on the Worth marshes and can be seen now in short flights around the scrape, feeding in the exposed mud on the pools and reed fringes. The parents can also be seen casting a watchful eye on the wandering youngsters, the chance of a mishap never too far away.
I arrived at 05.15 AM on Wednesday 26th armed with a weather forecast of bright sunshine for the first part of the morning which they got spot on. Seen distantly to the back of the scrape immediately, there were all four youngsters showing with the adult male bird.
I only had to wait until 06.30ish before the youngsters made their way around the edge of the pool and ended up with all four juveniles foraging in the mud right in front of me with the rising sun on my back as I stood at the gate waiting.
They stayed in the corner close to me for fifteen minutes before gradually working their way back along the edge of the pool to the small spit that they were seen feeding from when I first arrived. I thought that would be it with the camera but about an hour later, the adult male flew into the place where the youngsters had vacated earlier, with two of the juveniles flying in shortly after. They stayed close, feeding for about 10 minutes, which gave me more time to get images of the adult bird. Like the juveniles earlier, the now three Stilts worked their way along the edge of the pool, returning once again to where they alighted from.
Well worth the 5.15 am arrival time and I had great views of five of the Stilts in the company of Murray Orchard who was on site even earlier. I would not think it will be too long before the Stilts depart, a job well done by all concerned in making this happen.
Four Garganey were also noted, they appeared from nowhere out of the tall grass and a Wood Sandpiper, two Little-ringed Plovers and a Greenshank were also seen out on the scrape.
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