Saturday, August 22, 2015
A bar-tailed godwit was with thirteen black-tailed godwits feeding on the grass where the cliff-top dips to the dunes.
Another wader was half hidden in a gully. After about twenty minutes they all flew off and landed on the beach. I got a bit closer and took some optimistic shots across the ebbing tide. I could now see there were two ruff among them, making sixteen birds in all. The bar-tailed is third bird from the left.
The ruff on the extreme left is quite a bit larger than the one on the right. They stood together for most of the time, except for when the smaller one strode off and had a go at one of the godwits - for no apparent reason. After a while the two ruff flew over me towards the dunes, and the white underwings were very conspicuous on at least one of the birds.
A whimbrel was also on the beach, a little apart from the flock.
// posted by Christine @ 3:05 PM 
