Ringed plover: The bird with the best camouflage for the beach - and why it may look injured

Their sandy coloured backs and broken black markings on their heads provide perfect camouflage on a pebbly beach until one dashes forwards to snatch up a sandfly or worm.

Their excellent camouflage becomes a problem on beaches during the holiday season.

Ringed plovers lay their eggs in hollows in the shingle and the eggs too are blotched in a way that also makes these hard to see among the stones.

The parents frequently have to leave the nests while incubating in search of food while the eggs are also vulnerable to high tides, passing foxes, and accidental damage from humans and their dogs strolling into nesting areas.

As a result the ringed plover is Red listed because it has suffered a 37 per cent population decline since 1984.

Wardens at sites such as Beacon Ponds on the Holderness coast go to considerable lengths to cordon off any ringed plover, and little tern nests to prevent this from happening.

Another example is on the Cumbrian coast where the RSPB and Natural England have installed cages to provide ringed plover nests with extra protection.

Ringed plovers also have their own defence strategy, feigning injury when they think their eggs or young are in danger.

They droop their tail and one of their wings so they look weak and injured but keep ahead of a curious human until they feel they have moved the potential threat far enough away.

Then they abandon their act and fly off.

They will often feed with dunlins and other small waders but can only really be confused with its close relative the little ringed plover which mainly breeds inland on the gravel beaches of lakes and reservoirs.

The most noticeable differences are that the ringed plover has a wing bar which the little does not, the ringed has red legs and the little putty coloured and the little has a very noticeable golden ring around its eyes.

Also the little ringed plover is a summer visitor while the ringed plover is resident with the population boosted in autumn by arrivals from northern Europe.

Sightings across the region included a Caspian tern at the St Aidans reserve and Eccup reservoir, Leeds.