Early morning SANDERLING

This morning I reversed my route and did the hide first instead of the jetty, which proved fortuitous. Two of the Miswell Farm Little Owls were out this morning and twelve Red-legged Partridge were in the field south of the Dry Canal and west of the footpath.

From the hide the four juvenile Ruff and two juvenile Black-tailed Godwits were still present – as were Greenshank and Common Sandpipers. From the hide I could see Ringed Plover on the Jetty spit and so headed round to the Jetty to count them from there. The walk between yielded 1+ Yellow Wagtails flying over. From the jetty it took little while to count the eight Ringed Plover and two Little Ringed Plover as they were spread along the spit. While looking at a few of the Ringed Plover I noted another wader fly in to join them at 7:10 – it was a moulting adult Sanderling (see my image above). It proceeded to run about as SANDERLING do while I phoned a few people. Fortunately David was back from Mexico and put out a text. Steve Rodwell managed to get down to see it, but unfortunately at 7:35 I heard it call and watched it fly off high in a southerly direction (Roy Hargreaves).