Kentish Plovers at Marazion Beach, Cornwall

John Hawkey found a male and female Kentish Plover on Friday 22nd April in overcast conditions on the beach.  A small contingent of Cornish birders assembled in the evening and got decent views in deteriorating weather.  These two are the 69th and 70th records for the county. While this sounds like a healthy number, Kentish Plover have become decidedly rarer in recent years.  I'll stand corrected but I think this is the first sighting since another pair were found in the same location on 10th May 2012.  Another pair were found at nearby Long Rock beach on the 25th May 2009 and yet another pair were found on Lelant Saltings on the 19th April 2009.  The majority of records in Cornwall occur in April and May.

Completely unrelated, but of interest, was a colour ringed Kentish Plover seen at Rye Harbour (East Sussex) on 25th-26th March 2013 and was found to have come from breeding colony in Schleswig-Holstein, the northern most state in Germany. The bird was ringed there in May 2009 and was seen again in the general area the following year.



Male Kentish Plover at Marazion 22nd April 2016. (S Rogers - iPhone digiscoped) 

Male and female Kentish Plover Lelant 19th April 2009 (S Rogers)