Another day, another osprey at Pennington Flash

I nearly went to Martin Mere this afternoon to see the reported turnstones which I thought would be a new species at the Mere for me. On checking my database, it turns out that I've had several sightings over the years, including a flock of 20 in 2004 which I've somehow managed to forget about. So I decided to stay at Pennington Flash.....

At about 14:20 I was watching a 1st summer drake pintail and four dunlin on the spit from Horrock's hide when suddenly all of the gulls went up. I dashed outside and there was and osprey flying over East Bay. 

For about 30 minutes it was flying around East Bay and for a while it was even over the bay off the car park. Then it moved towards the sailing club so I also moved there. When I arrived it was still flying around the western end and I watched it for a few minutes, before it headed back to East Bay. Finally it returned to the sailing club for another 10 minutes before flying high and heading off west at about 15:50. A fabulous sight. Also at the sailing club, a ringed plover.

Comparing photos, I'm pretty confident that this is a different bird to the one that was roosting at the western end last week. Todays bird has a much more prominent breast band and looks like an adult to me, probably a female. Last week's bird I think was a first year bird. That's the third osprey I've seen at the flash so far this year and probably the fourth in total.

In some ways this 1st summer drake pintail is far more interesting than the osprey. A quick look at my database reveals that this is only the 5th record that I have for the species in May from anywhere in the country, and I haven't referred to any records of pintail as 1st summer male, making this potentially my first ever in this plumage. I certainly don't remember seeing anything like this before, but then again, I couldn't remember 20 turnstones at Martin Mere, so perhaps not surprising!