Oystercatchers on football pitch

[Fremlin]

I live in a relatively large town (about 80-90k population) and although there are loads of places for wildlife I found it very unusual this morning to see two oystercatchers on a gravel football pitch behind our local primary school. Surely they have not chosen this as a nesting place?

[elvisoneill]

Hi Fremlin

I've seen them on my local football pitches pretty regularly.

They feed in the mud in the River Lagan estuary.

When the tide comes in and the mud is covered its a handy leap over the fence

where they can dig out grubs and such.

On a recent Springwatch they were nesting pretty publicly in grass alongside a

road in the Orkney Islands.

Best

Elvis

[earthdragon64]

A couple of years ago a pair nested on a flat roof at Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. It is a pretty extensive roof with a lot of Moss and other vegetation growing on it. I'm not sure if they successfully reared chicks or not though.