Wonderful Welney

I do have a soft spot for Welney WWT reserve.  Mainly because it gives me the opportunity to do some birding whilst also offering cake, coffee, coloring crayons and ice cream to keep both my girls happy.   A couple of recent visits have been fluff filled with chicks and fledglings all over the place.  Little Ringed Plover young are almost fully winged but still staying close to parents and Redshank young are also pretty well on.  Lapwing fledglings are still fairly fluffy and most of the Avocet chicks I have seen have all been at the very cute ball of fluff stage.  My absolute favorite though was a Snipe chick in russet browns and blacks.  When I first picked it out, back to me and head down, slowly creeping through tangled vegetation I thought I'd found a Baillon's or Little Crake.  I wasn't so disappointed as I've seen more Baillon's and Little Crakes than I have Snipe chicks, which I shouldn't really be too proud about.

As cute as they come, an Avocet chick tries a bit of Phalaroping

I also enjoyed some ace views of singing Reed Bunting which put on quite a display to remind me what an absolute belter of a bird they are.