I reckon the Avocets and their chicks are the most interesting birds to watch at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve at the moment. Check them out in the this video, the chicks are very cute!
The adult Avocets are quite striking in appearance:
When they're feeding they walk through a shallow pool trawling the bottom for things to eat:
Sometimes it looks like they're really digging deep!
I was watching two adults with two chicks. Some of the time they stayed close together:
But they were also happy to be separated by quite a distance, though I assume the parents were keeping a close eye out for danger.
The chicks really do look like they are carefully watching and copying the parents!
I did of course go and see how the Black Headed Gull chicks were doing. They're growing up a bit, but unlike the Avocets, they prefer to sit and wait for the parents to bring food to them.
They have at least figured out that they can go and get a drink by themselves!
I wasn't sure about this pair of gulls, maybe they weren't breeding this year, or weren't successful?
They do look to be good friends though!
I saw a Redshank again, and this time it landed right in front of the bird hide, so I got some better pictures:
A Tufted Duck was around again too:
And an Oyster Catcher too:
I was also pleased to get a photo of a Sandwich Tern in flight:
This isn't such a good photo, but I wanted to include it because the Tern appears to not really be looking where it is going!
Finally, a pleasant sunset as I walked back to the car...
Mike
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