Birding is as much about luck as it is skill

After dropping MrB’s lovely sister off at the airport last week, we decided to take advantage of the early start and go birding. Not only would it be quieter but the incoming tide meant it was likely to be a good session. And it was, in fact it was extraordinary. The extraordinary moments began with an enormous fling of Dunlins arriving in front of a flock of Flamingoes.

There were about 150 Flamingoes and they had been joined by at least 300 Dunlins. And they're off againThere were also other waders, including a few Ruffs and around 100 avocets in the next pond. We thought this was pretty special, but as we were attempting to count them something else happened which turned an excellent birding session into an unforgettable one. The Dunlins suddenly became agitated and took off again. We couldn’t initially see why as we were some distance off and there were no walkers or cyclists in the vicinity.  Then we spotted the cause. A Peregrine Falcon was after his dinner.

Not sure if it was successful, but it certainly split up the fling of Dunlins and for a few moments even the Flamingoes looked as though were going to leave the pond. However they stayed, much to the relief to the small huddle of Redshanks, Ruffs and Godwits around their feet.

This whole moment couldn’t lasted more than a few minutes. It might have been our knowledge of tides and good birding locations that brought us to this spot, but it was pure luck we happened to be standing where we were when the Falcon went a’hunting. Two more wonderful moments followed this one, but I’ll keep those for another post. I’ll finish instead with another shot of the Flamingoes.

Greater Flamingoes
Back to sleep, drama over!

Author: BeckyB

It had been a good life walking, cooking, photographing, volunteering, blogging, and best of all spending time with MrB, family, & friends. Sadly it is no longer what it was, as suddenly and unexpectedly I became a widow.

15 thoughts

  1. Pingback: The joy of birding – Becky in Portugal

  2. Ohh, what a moment! 😮 We’ve got flamingos to on a lagoon nearby. But I always just cruise by, see that they are too far for my zoom, wait for a few moments to see if anything happens but it never does and they just sleep or hunt with their heads under the surface. 😀 I’d love to see them in flight one day.

    1. They are amazing in flight . . . one of my older posts has them in flight. Stunning to watch. You are very lucky to see them so frequently.
      Ours get disturbed so much where we live that we rarely see them. The lagoon where I took these is the only place now and it is only because I have an amazing camera that I can get the shots I do.

      1. Ours come here for the winter, in October. Not sure when they leave, maybe they are already gone, wasn’t there for a week or so. What I should do is go over there for the whole day and wait. 🙂 I’ll search for your in-flight photo.

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