The Kentish Plover that I sort of forgot to go look at last weekend was kind enough to stick around for the whole week, so I was able to catch up with it in the usual spot on Southport Beach opposite the part of Pleasureland where in a different lifetime I used to operate the Log Runner. It was easy to find - a dozen or more green coats were lined up shoulder-to-shoulder behind tripods and it was the closest bird.

It was a cute little thing, clearly much smaller than the Ringed Plovers and Dunlin it was with, and although the preceding week had been filled with online discussion about whether it was ‘leggy’ enough to rule out the rarer North American cousin, today’s weather was warmer and it was less fluffed up and showing a bit of tibia, dispelling the impression of a shorter-legged bird. Still pale about the lores though…

It displayed a few behaviours - mostly napping but also a bit of hopping, pecking, scurrying and even fluttering, so what more could one want?

On to Marshside, where the highlights were a half dozen whooper swans near Polly’s Pool, and cattle egrets still increasing in number with 11 on Crossens Outer and a couple on Sutton’s Marsh too.

As the day warmed up the insects were determined to prove they’d survived the crappy weather. Migrant Hawkers were still out and about, and Common darters basking on the viewing screens and sandy patches.