South Walney with Eider, Dunlin and RInged Plover

Eider, the old pier and Piel Castle

 Piel Castle and the old pier always draw the eye. On a  May  morning eider  are  on the water and roosting birds  highlight the curve of the shingle spit toward North East Point.  Curves of  sea-weed ripple over the shingle in fluctuating strand lines.  Some black and white males display to the scarcer females,  rising up from the water and flapping their wings.  Female eider rear their young,  often  coming together to form a creche.  So their  subdued  colouring. gives some protection from predation. 

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We reach Coastguard Cottages just after high tide and the cooing of eider accompanies us as we follow the track toward the old pier.  Slivers of salt marsh show at high tide and fragments of vegetation pierce the water.  The morning is already very warm, the sun strong and the light hazy. And rippling reflections of eider show in the water.  At a distance male eider appear black and white but their breeding plumage if more subtle.  The back of the neck is pistachio green and there's a warm blush of colour on the breast. 
Eider are large and distinctive ducks and we see them at a distance as we look across the water to PIel Castle.
From inland comes the song of skylark, with sedge warbler and reed bunting.  

Following the ebb tide, foraging along the shore-line are ringed plover and dunlin.  Ringed plover have striking bands of black on their white plumage but their camouflage works well and they're hard to spot. 

-Amongst the ringed plover are dunlin.  They rise over the water, a 'fling' of dunlin, like something bright and shining flung up into the air.  The small flock forages along the shore-line,  feeding on invertebrates, insects, snails, worms and molluscs found on mudflats and shoreline.  Up in a fling,  settling again, then off in flight and out of sight.  These dunlin will be non-breeders, resident in the UK. 
In summer there can be some 9,600 dunlin in the UK. But in October dunlin return from their Scandinavian breeding grounds and gather in huge flocks.  Some 350,000 dunlin overwinter in the UK, in spring returning to Denmark,  Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia to breed. 
Dunlin but why are they still here in May when their breeding grounds lie North?  And which race of dunlin are we seeing?  The picture is always richer and more intricate than appears at first glance. 
A fling of dunlin,  it's an apt collective noun.

In the afternoon we are welcomed by Paul, the Reserve Warden, who takes us to the renewed sea-hide and talks to us about management of the South Walney Reserve.  He is supported by his team, some of whom stay on the Reserve during the nesting period to monitor and protect breeding birds.  They speak of the importance of their 'no dog' policy, and of keeping visitors off the shingle, off the beach so that roosting flocks and breeding birds are not disturbed. They flag up the difference with North Walney where ground-nesting birds are being disturbed by walkers and dog walkers.  Foulshaw Moss is another Reserve of which they are rightly proud. I sugggest a no-dogs policy would be appropriate here too.   Foulshaw is an increasingly important Reserve for birds, for adders, lizard, dragonflies and damselflies, slowworms.   Walking the board-walks, stooping to study flora,  it's troublesome having to share a narrow walkway with large dogs.  Inappropriate for dogs too.   I doubt Nature Study is top of their list.