Frampton Marsh waders (1 Viewer)

[Georgebirds]

A little help with waders, please, I'm really struggling to get out of the 'but they all look the same' phase with IDing them - between the similarity and the winter/summer/juvenile colours, I'm just finding them to be very difficult to tell apart or learn.

I did my usual 'take a photo to ID from later' method, and had a look on the Frampton Marsh bird list for the last couple of days - Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper and Baird's Sandpiper are all being seen, but at this distance and with my poor knowledge, I just can't tell who's who here, even after poring over field guides and googling photos. Dunlins are the ones with black under the breast, I know, but that's not visible from every angle, some of these look different sizes and slightly different colouration, and yeah, it just keeps circling back round to not being able to tell them apart!

I've also attached some solo pics of one wader in particular, a closer bird so the photos are a bit less terrible, but still not readily matching anything I can find in my books - as so often with waders, I'm at the point where it's ask here or give up and just not count it as anything!

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

The solo one is a Curlew Sandpiper, look and the very long primary projections.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello George,

in the mixed waders pictures I can detect

• Common Ringed Plovers (3 in your first picture, note black breast-band and large square head, also judgeable in the one facing away
• Dunlins, the ones with black bellies or large black smuding on the belly, as you said. And the ones with black centers to (lower row of) scapulars
• Curlew Sandpiper, the ones with the yellowish wash to the breast: none in your first pic, 3 in your second picture

But as always with hidden object pictures, better wait and thanks Tom!

 

[Georgebirds]

Thank you both for the Curlew Sandpiper IDs - my first this year!

And my apologies, I should've said I was ok with the ringed plovers in there, I do know them. It's all the ones which are smallish, paler underneath and darker on the top, which I find blur into one.
I have no idea how long it'll take before all these look visibly and memorably different to me. All the other types of bird I've learnt seem to have 'stuck' just fine, I'm even having no trouble with blackwits v barwits or whimbrel v curlew lately, so bigger wading birds of similar looks do click just fine - but small-to-medium waders are like a weird blind spot in my recognition skills, where you can tell me one day and a month later I'll see them again and not know what I'm looking at. I'll keep trying!