Shorebirds all over

We have visited the beach and sand bars at Bastion Point each of the last two days.  The notable feature has been the number of shorebirds (waders) in the area.  Here is a map of my eBird route.

On both days the waders photographed were mainly in the areas of the yellow lines.  Terns were mainly in the more Northerly of these areas.  The green hatching is a dune area where Red-capped Plovers are certainly nesting and Little Terns may be nesting.  To be avoided.

The first photos were taken on 4 November using my larger camera.  The first three are all of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers.

 Looking at this image it was clear the upper bird had got some food.

 Zooming in on the image I think it is a small shell.

 These photos are a little blurry but I am pretty confident they are Red Knot.  Note the remnant breeding plumage.

 As are these (apart from the larger white jobbie in the front).

 On 5 November I visited again.  A surprise was that walking through the marshy area I found 3 Whiskered Terns feeding in Devlins Inlet.  (Later I saw 7 of this species loafing on a distant sandbar: none of this got photographed.)

These shorebirds were somewhat cooperative for photography through my telescope.  The biggest is a Bar-tailed Godwit; the basic grey one is a Red Knot and the smallest is I think a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

With my camera I caught a bunch of Knots with one Sharpie mixed in (behind a Knot).  The photo shows quite clearly (1) the browner colour of a Sharpie and (2) its chestnut crown - the giveaway field mark.

 A few more of the many Bar-tailed Godwits.

In addition to the shorebirds it was good to have 4 species of tern present: Whiskered; Little; Crested (lots) and Caspian.  Just as I was about to take some photos of most of these an immature Pacific Gull turned up and all the terns erupted and moved about 200m further away from me (but they would have got closer for anyone on Captain Stevensons Point).

Here are links to my eBird lists from 4 November and 5 November.