A Stand of Plovers
In my experience, Grey Plovers tend to be loners. Even at high tide roosts when most waders assort themselves beautifully into their own kind, Grey Plovers seem to sit around singly among other roosting waders. So I was mildly surprised to see this small group roosting at high tide in Northumberland. I checked to see if there was a collective noun for "Plovers" as Grey Plover is too specific, and there are three; stand, congregation and wing, the latter presumably for flying plovers. These collective nouns are supposedly hunting terms used by those "in the know" to tell friends what was about without letting outsiders know. But there seem to be words that describe non-quarry birds, and birds that don't congregate, for example "a descent of woodpeckers". Back to these Grey Plovers, they were in a small, loose aggregation high on some rocks, but some distance apart from the other waders (Knot, Purple Sandpipers and Turnstones).
A Stand of Plovers
In my experience, Grey Plovers tend to be loners. Even at high tide roosts when most waders assort themselves beautifully into their own kind, Grey Plovers seem to sit around singly among other roosting waders. So I was mildly surprised to see this small group roosting at high tide in Northumberland. I checked to see if there was a collective noun for "Plovers" as Grey Plover is too specific, and there are three; stand, congregation and wing, the latter presumably for flying plovers. These collective nouns are supposedly hunting terms used by those "in the know" to tell friends what was about without letting outsiders know. But there seem to be words that describe non-quarry birds, and birds that don't congregate, for example "a descent of woodpeckers". Back to these Grey Plovers, they were in a small, loose aggregation high on some rocks, but some distance apart from the other waders (Knot, Purple Sandpipers and Turnstones).