I went ringing at Alba Marsh at the weekend with Brendan. As we arrived, Brendan noticed two young Kentish Plovers running around with their parents looking on. Brendan asked me to look at one of the young birds as he got out of his car so we could see where it went to. It ran into a small bush of low vegetation, but when we went to eh bush that could not have been more than 1.5 metres in diameter we could not see it due to the fact it was sitting very still and was incredibly well camouflaged. Eventually after about three or four minutes of looking I found the bird and we took it out and ringed it. I had ringed adult Kentish Plover before but never a young bird like this and it was a really cute looking bird.
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| Kentish Plover (chick) - photo by Brendan Kavanagh |
Driving back to our normal ringing site I saw the second young bird running with an adult near to the a small pool at the side of the main reed beds, and informed Brendan. This bird made a run for the reeds and water and tried to hide but Brendan found it straight away and we ringed this bird too. Not a bad start to our ringing session with two Kentish Plover Chicks ringed before we had even set up any nets.