Sanderling

18th May - Dick S had paid an early morning visit and posted his sightings to the yahoo group.  It included seeing a winter plumaged Dunlin, which I thought was potentially an interesting bird.  So I made my way down just after 10am for a quick look.  In the southern bay of the spit, I quickly located 3 waders, An LRP, a Dunlin in transitional plumage, with some rufous on the mantle and a few black spots on the undersides and a Sanderling - great! This bird had presumably arrived in the intervening period.  I took a record shot and sent the obligatory text to get news out, but at c10:25am all 3 birds suddenly flew for no apparent reason.  The Sanderling called a few times as it did so.  I could not relocate the birds by 10:45am when I had to leave, but it is possible that they are hidden somewhere on the spit, as I didn't check all areas.  17 days since my last year tick, so hopefully this will be the start of an end to that lean period!

Record

The other thing of note this morning was 13 Shelduck all asleep across the spit.  This is a record count for me at this site and following yesterday's report of 10 at Dorney Lake, which isn't too far away, I wonder if these have relocated.

There were 8 in this group, so I've obviously 'chopped' some off!