Waders part 1, Blacktoft Sands RSPB - Calidris types (1 Viewer)

OK, obviously I put far too many photos of waders in one post for anyone to want to respond, so I'm going to break it down into several new threads and let the other one sink...

(All seen on 9th October 2016)

Part 1 - Calidris types (or "dunlinoids" as I like to think of them...)

1) People in the hide were saying that there was a Curlew Sandpiper with a group of Dunlins - I couldn't tell it apart from the others through bins, but it was on its own for a bit and I got these (all very similar, maybe I was overdoing the snapping!) distant pics - are any diagnostic features for Curlew Sand visible in them?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/29595675583/in/album-72157673832470210/ and following 8 pics!

2) are these all Dunlin, or can one of them be the Curlew Sand?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30190561156/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30190552126/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30110441622/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30190528636/in/album-72157673832470210/

3) This bird looked paler, shorter-billed and chunkier/less of a neck than the other "dunlinoids" - Sanderling?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30198977866/in/album-72157673832470210/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/29604339053/in/album-72157673832470210/

4) What's the more reddish-toned small wader in this pic?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126840895@N05/30199055566/in/album-72157673832470210/

Links are broken, unfortunately; all I get is:

Page Not Found

Oops! Looks like you followed a bad link.

Click to expand...

Oh, that's odd. I'll try to fix that...

Hopefully fixed photo URLs now!

Thanks!

1) Could well be a Curlew Sand., but hard to exclude Dunlin completely on those distant views.

2) Three Dunlin (smaller birds) and a Ruff (larger bird)

3) All Dunlin (apart from the Blackwit); the paler one is more completely moulted into winter plumage

4) From left to right: probable Dunlin, Common Redshank, Dunlin

Thanks - I hadn't realised Dunlins could vary so much in plumage at the same time of year. I hadn't really noticed the paler bird in 3 as very different when I took the photos, but on looking at them on my computer it seemed to really stand out in structure as well as plumage - much more than the bird people were calling a Curlew Sandpiper!

(I had thought the main ID feature for Curlew Sand vs Dunlin was bill length/curvature, but that doesn't seem reliable now given the variation between all the Dunlins here, that the bird you identified as Curlew Sand in my Ruff thread doesn't seem outside...)

Yep, Dunlins are very variable! (there's several subspecies). That's why it can be tricky with distant pics . . . :t: