Lunt Meadows

Lunt Meadows

A nice afternoon wander round Lunt Meadows and Roughley's Wood. It's late July so it was fairly quiet in the warm breeze but a nice walk nonetheless. The pools held groups of mallards in eclipse plumage and a couple of flocks of black-tailed godwits that included every variation from rich rusty breeding plumage to full Winter grey. There were only two avocets left, and adult and the single, well grown, juvenile that survived this year. There were at least three little ringed plovers, two adults and one I thought might be an immature bird that spent all its time ducking behind cover.

Avocet, Lunt Meadows

There were still a few young, mostly brown, black-headed gulls still being fed by their parents. A couple of them lurking under the far bank from the hide made me look twice (they're at that age where they look most like a dumpy wader if you don't see them properly). Good job I did, mind, as it made me check out all the shadows under the banks and I managed to find a wood sandpiper.

Black-tailed skimmer, Lunt Meadows

There were huge numbers of dragonflies, mostly black-tailed skimmers and a few keeled skimmers just to keep me confused (I'm still not at all confident with my dragonflies).