Day 175 - Gracious Grey Plovers

Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) in winter plummage
- I must try and find one in summer plummage too!

Hi all today's day 175 and Sunday morning I was at Nosterfield helping a friend of my Dad's to sell some optics. The good thing about this is that I got to use them as well meaning I saw quite a lot of things. Of course, like any photographer, I had my camera on me so I could get a picture of anything I saw. Someone from the bird hide said there was a Grey Plover out on the water. I looked for it and eventually found it.

So here are the facts:

• They are only found on the coast of the UK at Winter. They're not found in Northern Scotland and Western Ireland. It's not usual for them to be inland like this one.

• They breed in the arctic and have never been recorded as breeding in the UK

• They are an Amber Status bird with 43,000 wintering birds and 70,000 birds migrating over in Spring.

A view of it's plummage from behind

• They are 28cm in length and they have a 77cm wingspan. Aslo, both Male and Females weigh 240g.

• They are an Amber Status bird because they localised non-breeding population and they are also an important non-breeding species.

• They have a 9 year typical lifespan but the oldest blew this away and stuck it out for 25 years 1 moth and 18 days.

• They usually live on Tundra and on migration they live on pasture and estuaries. This is where they get their food.

• Their diet usually consists of shellfish, worms and in Winter they eat mainly marine worms and crustaceans.

Did I see a worm over there?

• The average pair of Grey Plovers will raise to adulthood 18 chicks. This is because each clutch has 4 eggs and their juvenile survival is 0.63.

Here are some links to some more information:

BTO Birdfacts - Grey Plover

RSPB - Grey Plover

Birdlife - Grey Plover

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.