Calidris alpina Dunlin
Location: Fleetwood Marine Lakes, Lancashire.
Conditions: Bright, light cloud, strong wind; mid afternoon (high tide).
Photograph quality: 1
Comments: I went up to Fleetwood to find various waders and sea birds - a large flock of godwits was roosting opposite the Marine Lakes the last couple of days, but today they were nowhere to be seen, perhaps due to the strong wind on the coast. There was a small flock of turnstones on a jetty above the eastern lake, by a bridge separating the two bodies of water. One bird was different - but since I only know waders in their winter plumage, I wasn't sure what it was.
I really assumed it was something I'd seen before, but I was lucky - it's a dunlin! In the winter, these are pale grey above, white underneath, but as you can see, the breeding plumage is much brighter - the same goes for the turnstones. Note how small this bird is - turnstones are quite a bit smaller than redshanks, but they dwarf this little dunlin. Not common in the summer in the UK, especially on the coast - a few thousand pairs breed on mountains, so even more unexpected.
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