Wagtails please

I have watched a pair of these birds nesting on the beach in Littlehampton each year, most probably the same ones as in the photograph.

However, over the last two years they have not been around so much and I thought they had disappeared so I was very pleased to see the picture of the bird alive and well and also that it is nesting so late in the season.

Most years they manage to lay two or three eggs in May but the survival of the chicks often depends on whether passers-by disturb the nest, or whether the crows eventually attack them.

The bird is very difficult to spot as they blend in so well with the shingle on the beach. May I add that it is, in fact, a Ringed Plover and takes its name from the black bands around its head.

Patrick Mason

Shirley Close

Rustington

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