As I arrived, over-encumbered with gear, a car drew up beside me and asked me the best path to the Black-winged Stilts! I denied any knowledge but was tempted enough to head towards Flamingo rather than the usual lookout over Radar pool. Having admired the Avocet chicks I finally came across the Black-winged Stilts elsewhere, guarded 24/7 by a very mice but very tough looking chap with a dog partner, a large Alsatian.
He doesn't generally train the dog to bite (too much paperwork if there is an incident) but simply to leap up and knock the perpetrator over, - this usually knocks the wind out of the baddy, possibly breaking a rib or two in the process, and the absence of biting reduces the risk of the dog being separated from his handler by the police after the incident, which even if only temporary, would be unthinkable and intolerable to both.
This is the male Black-winged Stilt (very henavily cropped) standing guard
and this is the female (even more heavily cropped) incubating the eggs on the nest, just to the right of the standing male.
The scrub was fairly full of birds, Whitethroats, Linnets, Goldfinches, Nightingales, Blackbirds and here is a nice Long-tailed Tit.
and here is a male Cuckoo, that was calling for a long time from this area of scrub by the Flamingo Pool::
There were a lot of Black-headed Gull chicks around, and here is one that had got into the water.
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