If I can't see him he can't see me ..

swifts need our help!

If I can't see him he can't see me

kildare.17hmr

Cant make out what it is?

I can see the chick if that's what we're looking at :pac: What is it exactly?

tricky D

Plover?

alleyjoe

zooming and zooming? what is it?

swifts need our help!

I'll post a closer photo soon. I had to go to work. It's a Ringed plover chick.

swifts need our help!

I was at a quarry yesterday evening looking for nesting swifts. I knew adult/s were there because I could see one and hear it peeping. There was no indication of nesting.

I saw a swift attempting to enter a hole and as I went closer one of the plovers started the broken wing display. My immediate thought was oh shhhh did I step on eggs. This was a limestone quarry so small grey, black speckled eggs would have been difficult to see. I looked down and a few inches from my feet was a chick and about a foot away there was another.

It actually scared me as I moved away incase I stood on a hiden chick

Half-cocked

Its amazing how well camoflaged a lot of ground nesting birds can be. I was out on Great Saltee a few years back and stumbled upon an Oyster Catcher chick. I came back half an hour later with 2 ringers and we spent ages searching the area. Just as we gave up, one of them nearly trod on it, less than 10 feet from where I had first seen it! It got a nice shiney ring on its leg.

But it does demonstrate the care we should take out walking in nesting areas.

swifts need our help!

Half-cocked wrote: »

But it does demonstrate the care we should take out walking in nesting areas.

So true.

This pair have chosen to nest in a quarry that is now an overspill car park for the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge car park. Carrick-a-Rede is about 5 miles from the Giants Causeway

Maudi

swifts need our help! wrote: »

If I can't see him he can't see me

very very good..i for one cant see him.

swifts need our help!

really?! I posted a close photo.