I was strolling around the outskirts of Hartlepool Docks the other day and was delighted to see
redshanks all over the place.
There certainly was a time when this landscape fairly rang to the neurotic piping of oystercatchers and that rather gentler piping of
redshank. There are still some oyster-catchers making that annual pilgrimage inland but nothing like in the numbers that once spent their summers here.
An estimated 600 wading birds on reserve have seen their nests and breeding attempts destroyed, including almost two-fifths (37%) of England and Wales' lowland snipe, as as
redshank, lapwing and rare black-tailed godwits.
The only obvious sound of life maybe the piping call of
redshank or distant barking call of a flock of Brent Geese.
The wildlife charity fears lapwing and
redshank chicks are struggling to cope with the drought.
Ford, of
Redshank Close, Ayton, Washington, admitted two counts of driving whilst disqualified and two of no insurance.
Andrew Blaine, 24, from
Redshank Lane, Warrington, has been charged with murder and appeared at Warrington magistrates' court yesterday.
The
Redshank This wading bird spends winter around the Mediterranean, returning to the Severn for the summer and is protected as a migratory waterbird.
Wild species of curlew, lapwing and
redshank watched in wonder as nine konik ponies were led on to their land at the Portmore Lough nature reserve in Co Armagh.
Species already at risk from their changing habitat include the lapwing and
redshank, whose south east wetlands look set to dry out during parched summers, the RSPB said.
-A LESSER Yellow-legs - a North American variety of our
Redshank - has been blown across the Atlantic and now looks set to winter in Carmarthenshire.