Dose of merlin

Busy most of the day with a poorly child but we did get out to look at the wet field near the school briefly (2 dunlin) and in the afternoon we had 40 minutes at Ljungbyholm. No raptors through today in the short watch but a couple of 1K merlins livened things up. They were a male and female and perched very close to each other, they are supposed to pair up on the wintering grounds... Waders were good too with a single adult grey plover looking rather splendid and exotic out in the middle of the field and a flyby by four ruff.