More Waders

Following on from my last posting I am showing some more wader images obtained during last week's high tides at Southport and Rossall. Most of the ones shown above are from Rossall Point at Fleetwood. At Rossall the waders roost very close to the promenade and at times the sanderling particularly came extremely close to the camera and were not put off by the human activity on the prom. Virtually all of these sanderling were juveniles recently returned from their birthplace in the high Arctic and probably from Greenland. This may have been their first encounter with humans and like many birds from the far North they can be very confiding.
Fellow wildlife photographer Martin and myself had a wonderful time photographing the birds and explaining to some interested passers by what they were and where they had come from. Most people had not seen the groups of birds roosting on the beach and went on their way ignorant of the long distance travellers that had made it to the Lancashire coastline on their very long journey from Arctic breeding grounds. Martin and I were reluctant to leave on what had been a very pleasant day's session with the cameras and enjoyed in some very nice late summer weather.
Most of the images shown above are of the very obliging sanderling which at times came too close for focusing !! A couple of images are shown above of turnstones one resting and showing the lovely colours of the plumage, and the other of a turnstone actually in the act of turning over a stone. Also posing nicely for the cameras were lots of ringed plovers ,the ones above are juvenile birds which were present in large numbers. A roosting dunlin also shows off the lovely rich colours of it's plumage.
Hoping my readers enjoy my latest selection of images and thanks for looking in. There are more very high tides at the end of this month and I look forward to returning to capture the beauty of the mass flocks of waders which grace the Lancashire coastline at this time of the year.