Two waders - Lo Goleró, Ebro Delta, Spain, October 2024 (1 Viewer)

[pandachris]

I think I might end up feeling a bit silly here. I've been birding quite a while and have seen more than a couple of waders over the years.

We were birding in the Ebro Delta two weeks ago and paid a visit to Lo Goleró, for the first time. We'll be back. We found a nice flock of several hundred waders and were able to identify 11 species before the sun got the better of us. Looking at the photos taken by my partner, I started to wonder about a couple of the birds. Firstly there's the bird with its wings partially outstretched. Fairly certain that we thought this was Common Redshank at the time. The absence of white in the wings makes me question that. What am I missing? And what about the small bird to its left and slightly closer? Knot? I don't recall seeing anything that I thought was a Knot on the day. We were using a 'scope and I thought we both had at least a cursory glance at all the birds present.

Any advice welcomed - and yes, I do feel that I should know this stuff.

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[Joern Lehmhus]

small bird on left of wing stretching-bird is dunlin I think,

could the other bird (the wing stretching one) be a greenshank with upperwing looking darker than usual due to light conditions

 

[Bewick]

,

small bird is dunlin I think, could the other bird be a greenshank with upperwing looking darker than usual due to light conditions

also op’s correct that the birds they identified as a knot is indeed a knot.

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Bewick, you mean the one on the right and in front of the wing-stretching bird...
I gave directions now in my post to clarify

 

[pandachris]

Thanks both. "also op’s correct that the birds they identified as a knot is indeed a knot." might more accurately be rendered as "also op’s correct that the birds they failed to identify at the time as a knot is indeed a knot." We completely missed it when on site.

 

[Bewick]

Bewick, you mean the one on the right and in front of the wing-stretching bird...
I gave directions now in my post to clarify

Yes

 

[pandachris]

Errm - I knew I was going to feel silly here, but wasn't prepared for the reason for that silliness being my inability to tell left from right! Of course I meant the small bird on the right (the Knot). In my head I wrote "right" but apparently "left" is what ended up in the post I was reasonably happy with the Dunlin. There were a handful of Curlew Sandpipers in the flock, but Dunlins were the most numerous.

 

[pandachris]

As for Greenshank, that seems most likely, I think. I went down a sort of Spotted Redshank rabbit hole which was annoying me because I feel I would have noticed a Spotted Redshank at the time (unlike the Knot). There were lots of Greenshank present.