White-rumped Sandpiper, Minsmere

This was to be my first birding trip out since the end of June and the very successful trip to Bempton Cliffs for the Black-browed Albatross. 

An early morning visit to Minsmere was our preferred destination. Arriving shortly after 6am, we took the footpath along North Wall towards the beach. East Hide was only occupied by two other birders and neither had managed to locate either of our target birds. One guy mentioned seeing a couple of small waders in the far corner of the scrape and when we got the scope of them, we were pleased to find the White-rumped Sandpiper busily feeding alongside a Dunlin. It flew to a nearby island and continued feeding among a small group of Dunlin. A Marsh Harrier appeared over the scrape and the panicked waders took to the air. Thankfully they dropped down closer than before and after scanning through the small flock of Dunlin the White-rumped Sandpiper was again present and our other target the Pectoral Sandpiper was also found among them. 

Brian managed to grab the photo below showing both White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers together just as they were flushed again.

White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers

 

While searching for our main targets we had managed to locate a couple of Spotted Redshanks, a much overdue year tick.

Spotted redshank

We moved along the beach and began scanning the South Scrape from the public hide. There were large numbers of Common, Sandwich and Little Terns and we managed to find a couple of Little Gulls and a single juvenile Arctic Tern among them.

It was a very enjoyable morning just being out birding again, with five additions to my year list being a very nice bonus.