Sanderling

Sanderling at dawn, Lincolnshire coast.

After a treacherous walk across the salt marshes in the pitch black, I arrived at the shore well before sunrise and set up to wait for the tide to change. After what felt like an age the sun finally started to rise and a group of sanderlings and dunlins scuttled across the sand right in front of me, plucking crustaceans out of the surf . This Sanderling paused briefly, allowing a series of portraits in the blue dawn half light.

About the Sanderling

“The sanderling is a small very energetic wading bird. It has a short straight black bill and medium length black legs. It is pale grey above and white underneath, and there is a black mark at its shoulder where the folded wing meets the body. It does not breed in the UK, but is a winter visitor and passage migrant in spring and autumn, journeying to and from their high Arctic breeding grounds.”

Information from: https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/sanderling