Ringed Plovers in Belgium--Geer (1 Viewer)

[Tom St]

Hello,
I have some severely cropped photos of two distant Common/Little Ringed Plovers. Are they IDable to species? I believe the single bird in plover_f is the same individual that is in the background in the other photos.
Photos taken 16th August 2023 in Geer, Belgium.

 

[Bewick]

Little ringed plover imo, dull legs, more pronounce neck. Also Geer appears to be in land, it's rarer to get common ringed plover inland.

 

[THE_FERN]

Rear/last one is definitely little ringed plover: we can see long legs. The foreground one ought to be if inland but I'm troubled by a) quite strong white supercilium and b) some indication of orange bill base (latter difficult to see and I can't be certain of it)

 

[Bewick]

Rear/last one is definitely little ringed plover: we can see long legs. The foreground one ought to be if inland but I'm troubled by a) quite strong white supercilium and b) some indication of orange bill base (latter difficult to see and I can't be certain of it)

See what you mean but cannot make out the orange base of the bill. Agree with little ringed plover for the last one, suspect both are. Think that ringed plover sp and little ringed plover are what you should mark them down as.

 

[Butty]

some indication of orange bill base (latter difficult to see and I can't be certain of it)

I note your caution, but guess that you may be viewing on your small device, whose inadequacies you have remarked on. I'm looking v closely indeed and I don't see this at all - so any perceived colour may be down to screen/device-artefact.

 

[SteveClifton]

The rear bird and photo f is a juv LRP.
The front bird is a Ringed Plover, probably a 1st year also. I have at least 4-5 pairs of Ringed Plovers breeding on my inland patch, about the same no of pairs as LRPs, so being inland is no issue.

 

[Bewick]

The rear bird and photo f is a juv LRP.
The front bird is a Ringed Plover, probably a 1st year also. I have at least 4-5 pairs of Ringed Plovers breeding on my inland patch, about the same no of pairs as LRPs, so being inland is no issue.

Do you mind explaining why the front bird is definitely a common?

 

[THE_FERN]

I note your caution, but guess that you may be viewing on your small device, whose inadequacies you have remarked on. I'm looking v closely indeed and I don't see this at all - so any perceived colour may be down to screen/device-artefact.

Well I could be wrong as I noted. Here it's a judgement call as much as anything since the photos so lacking. But I looked carefully and saw the same apparent effect in 2 images but not the other.
Edit: I should have noted I was actually looking on a large monitor. The base appears notably paler (i.e. where the orange would be) even without much magnification

The supercilium is perhaps a bigger concern. I don't think we can judge leg length easily

 

[Tom St]

FYI, Little and Common Ringed Plover were both frequently reported in that area around the time I was there.