Dunlin moving through

May is the month when Dunlin are looking at their best, with their distinctive black bellies making identification very straight forward. It's also the month when birds turn up at unexpected locations, such as at the former Felindre tinplate site, where I saw one last week with a flock of 25 Ringed Plovers and 2 Little Ringed Plovers. Another feature of spring birds is that they are often so much tamer than at other times of the year and you can often walk right up to individuals or flocks, even out on exposed mudflats. The birds above were part of a small group that dropped in on some flooded land within the Corus steelworks last week.