One of our commonest shore birds, wary, noisy, and beautiful, especialIy in flight when the striking wing pattern can be seen. To bird watchers it is often a great nuisance for it gives the alarm, and puts other birds on the alert. In the summer it often nests by inland waters. The nest is placed in a grass tussock which often forms a canopy over the cup and its four eggs.
Insects, grubs, and molluscs are its food which it finds on muddy shores, in swamps, and it sewage farms etc. In winter it gathers in large flocks, and there is some migration, though many redshanks stay in Britain all year. |