Turnstone at Ferry Meadows CP, Cambridgeshire

Not a rare bird nationally, but pretty scarce inland, this Turnstone was found today by Paul Taylor pecking around the small area of shingle by Gunwade Lake in Ferry Meadows CP. As is pretty usual for this species it was pretty approachable, but did object when you got a bit too close.

Titchwell Turnstones

Turnstones seem to be extremely confiding birds. On my recent trip to Titchwell RSPB there were hundreds of these birds on the beach, picking their way through the flotsam and jetsam that had been washed up by the recent storms. Some were having a snooze as well! They allowed you to get extremely close and weren`t at all bothered by your presence.

Turnstone

Another site visited in Norfolk was the beach at Salthouse in order to see Snow Buntings. This site is normally a very reliable one at which to see these lovely little visitors, however on this occasion, there were none present. I wasn`t too disheartened though as there were some very obliging Turnstones that seemed quite unperturbed by my presence which allowed me to get the shots below.

This is a bird that does not breed in Britain, although there are strong indications of possible breeding in Scotland, indeed the ones that we see in this country breed in northern Europe, Greenland and north-east Canada. The ones from northern Europe pass through Britain in July and August on their way to winter in Africa. Those from Canada and Greenland arrive in Britain between August and October and remain until May when they will return to their breeding grounds. Some 64,000 of these birds spend the winter around our coastline, a number which has dropped in the last ten years, possibly due to changes in shellfish distribution.