Oystercatchers don't build an elaborate nest for their eggs but lay them in a small scrape in the ground. In the past, we've found them in the pebbles at the back of a beach, above the high-tide mark, but yesterday....
....we came across this nest perched on a small knoll high on a headland, with....
....a steep-sided gully, filled with the waves at high tide, on one side, and bare, windswept rock all around - the nest is in the middle of the small patch of green in the centre of this picture....
....which was taken from the grassy area at top right looking down the headland beyond the beach.
According to Wikipedia, this is normal for oystercatchers, which like to nest in a spot with good visibility all round - which this site certainly has.
While we were admiring the nest and marvelling at the view, the two parents were watching us warily, not making any noise but getting up occasionally and flying round us....
....so we left the nest and climbed the slope above it, to a vantage point where we could watch what happened. The mother - the other bird sat at a distance and pretended not to be interested, so it must have been the father - approached the nest on foot. In this picture the eggs are just visible below her to the left.
Surprisingly, she made more and more noise as she approached....
....until she was quite satisfied that we had done no harm to her eggs, after which she settled and made herself comfortable on her nest.
A beautiful sequence.
ReplyDelete