A wet St. Swithins at North Cave.

Where to go to on a wet morning?
Somewhere with hides to shelter in, but hides with seats in!
Reports of various waders from North Cave tempted me to go there, so off I set with a fold up chair.
Lots of lapwings, and feral pigeons in front of the East hide.
There was no one in the Turret hide so I could move from window to window to get good views of the birds on Island Lake.
An avocet and its young were busy feeding.

Nearby was a single black tailed godwit. Closer to the hide were two green sandpipers.

 

A single greenshank was also feeding in front of the hide. This is the first greenshank I have seen this year and is the 169th bird on my year list.

When it had stopped raining I walked to the next hide and on the way heard and saw a male yellowhammer.

 

Plenty of coots

 a few little grebes

a reed warbler kept flying in front of the hide as it brought food to its young. After the rain I returned to my car. There is a new lady at the mobile cafe and I had an excellent cheese and tomato panini for lunch.
From the South hide I was watching common terns fishing

 

not good conditions for trying to take photos of flying terns or swifts! It passed the time waiting for the rain to stop,
Crossland hide was my last stop and from where I saw a common sandpiper in the distance. A pleasant 5 hours at the reserve despite the rain. Lets hope that the old saying is wrong and that it wont rain for the next 40 days.