COLLINGWOOD
INGRAM
ornithologist
and plantsman
Tuesday 13 July 1915, Kingsnorth
Wishing to settle a few small accounts I took my company down to New Romney for the day. With an hour to spare before lunch I bathed and strolled along the sands to the end of the dunes. The tide was just ebbing and small numbers of small waders were feeding with feverish haste on the still wet and glistening strand. The majority of these were dunlins, garbed in their black summer waistcoats, but ringed plover were also present in goodly numbers and among these a fair sprinkling of Kentish plovers.
I was rather surprised to find that the two eggs of the Kentish plover in the ‘shell nest’ (see 29th June) were still unhatched. With regard to my observations on July 4th, I took care to note how the eggs were lying. On that occasion they were partially buried and I contended that this was done to partly protect them against the fierce rays of the sun and the heat that prevailed at that time. Today the weather being cooler and the sun tempered by a hazy atmosphere this precaution was not necessary and the eggs were resting well on the surface.
