Monday, July 06, 2020

Lockdown Diary: Sunday 5.7.20

Another windy day took me to the pits in the Baston and Langtoft area (south Lincs); what we around here call Baston and Langtoft Gravel Pits, or BLGP for short. There is a new pit which had a successful Black-headed Gull breeding season, and I checked it out. All the BhGs have moved on, but the water level looks juicy for waders. Wader-wise here was a single Black-tailed Godwit, and a single Green Sandpiper, plus a pair of Oystercatchers and some Lapwings.
There is a pretty extensive Sand Martin colony in the sandy cliffs, here. Oddy, some of the holes look a tad enlarged, too big for a martin. On one side of this colony, a dozen Stock Doves were clinging to the cliff face, almost looking like South American parrots at a salt lick. One or two flew up and onto the entrance ‘ledges’ large, modified martin holes, almost as if they were using them as nest holes themselves. The seemed to put there heads deeper into the hole, too. Surely, these doves are not trying colonial cliff hole-nesting? Are they feeding on something in the holes, or extracting grit for their gizzards? Perhaps this will remain a mystery.

No comments: