Hooded Dotterels And Red Capped Plovers Poem by Francis Duggan

Small Varieties of waders on beaches they like to reside
Searching for tiny marine life washed in by the tide
Never seen them flock together though territory they do share
Though often seen they are uncommon to rare
To most coastal people one might say well known
Hooded dotterels and red capped plovers have a charm of their own
They run along the tide line picking up insects as they go
Yet little of their ways few do seem to know
When they take to the wing close to the beach they do fly
Like gulls they don't circle in the coastal sky
Not of the same species though similar in a way
Birds one does see often though not every day
On coastal mudflats and beaches by the sea
Birds familiar to many and familiar to me.