This is a closer shot of a section of the flock shown in the pervious slide. It shows how densely the birds are packed and how wide the band is as well as the variation in plumages of the Sanderlings. Notice how fat some of these birds are - apparently ready for a long draining journey.

I note in this shot that there are very, very few Sanderlings showing much of the bright juvenile plumage - a much lower percentage than I remember than in previous years. Perhaps more have already moved from juvenile plumage into the winter molt and its just happened a bit earlier than previous years. Easy to pick out the darker Dunlins.