2nd Aug - cloudy, occasional spot of rain, windy at times, SW, max 18C

A very early trip to Stanford reservoir to see if the Baird Sandpiper could be found, it was not.  A Greenshank, Dunlin and several Common Sandpipers and Little-ringed plovers were around.  Then 10 Black-tailed Godwits flew in and landed at the inlet end.  One was colour ringed, it had been ringed in The Swale, Essex, UK on 13th Oct 2012.
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Photo  C Hubbard

Late afternoon Chris called to say he thought he had found a Curlew Sandpiper, so I popped over. After better views and photos it clearly was a a Dunlin, probably of the Arctic sub-species, which is at the large end of the Dunlin size range and can give the appearance of a Curlew Sandpiper.  It was feeding with 5 other Dunlin of the sub-species that we would expect to see, the Black-tailed Godwits were still present still and a Greenshank.  A very useful identification exercise.

Photo C Hubbard

A single Swift flew over feeding among the Sand Martins.