Saltholme RSPB 5/8/09

Went to Saltholme yesterday to look for the curlew and pectoral sandpipers. When we got there, we saw a grey wagtail in the car park. When we got to the reception hide we went over to the window to see what there was. The big colony of sand martins was busy, the terns were noisy and there was a cormorant diving all over the lake. We moved on to the wildlife watch point. Except it wasn't! There was only swans and coots. The feeders had nothing on them at all so we moved on to the second hide quite quickly! From that hide we saw 9 little egrets, 2 shoveler and lots of common terns. We wandered on to the next hide where the pectoral sandpiper was being seen from. When we went in and sat down, we saw some waders on the far side of the pond. We scanned them and a warden told us that there was 2 ruff which I saw because they were bigger than the redshank and dunlin. But we also saw a tiny wader which was my first ever little stint. No sign of the curlew or pectoral sandpipers. I asked the warden where they were and he said we had justed missed them and they were there yesterday morning. Typical! We went to the surrounding pools after Saltholme. However, there wasn't much anywhere except 10 black-tailed godwits at Calor Gas Pool.

Common Tern Small White? Not sure about the insects. Can anyone help?

Grey Seals at Seal Sands