American Golden Plover - Great Heck

I've been working down in Lincolnshire for the past two days so yesterday I decided to drop in at Great Heck to look for the American Golden Plover. It was about mid-morning when I pulled up at the section of the flood closest to the village and straight away got onto a Ruff and then the moulting adult American Golden Plover with European Golden Plovers and Lapwing all also present (along with Egyptian Goose).

It was stood on its own with European Golden Plovers a little bit either side of it but seemed to be a bit more 'on-its-own' than the European Goldies that were typically all bunched together. The bird in question still had a fair bit of black down its chest and belly, was darker backed, and looked smaller than the nearby European Goldies, in fact when one European Goldie walked past the American Goldie it dwarfed it.

In typical fashion the Goldies were very nervous and after a while they all hunkered down, tilted their heads upwards and were gone, I didn't see what it was but was most probably a Peregrine. Luckily just before they flew off I managed another terrible 'record shot' on my phone (see below - for what it's worth!).

My two days in Lincolnshire have also been rather Golden Plover orientated, however I've been watching them in flight at distance so picking out anything else was more-or-less impossible, though there was still approximately 2,500 birds which was quite an impressive sight. Other interest was in the form of Barn Owl, several Kingfisher fly-bys, a decent Skylark and Linnet passage this morning, a few Lesser Redpoll, Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, there's been some monster birds spaced around the Western Palearctic the last couple of days including Green Heron, Buff-bellied Pipit, Grey-cheeked Thrush, Lanceolated Warbler, Sykes Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat and Chestnut Bunting. I shall be scouring Flamborough...