Barna Birder: Some nice waders on the patch

Yesterday a quick visit to the pier in the evening rewarded me with a stunning new bird in the form of a little stint!

I arrived down at the pier beach at high tide and walked across the sea wall, seeing the 1st winter mediterranean gull thats been hanging around with a large flock of other gulls, I kept on going down the wall so as to get the sun at my back, while I was doing this I noticed 3 small waders. I raised my binoculars and scanned, Dunlin, Dunlin, Not Dunlin? The third and final bird was a good bit smaller than a Dunlin, when I saw the two white "braces" on the back I immediately recognised it as a little stint and a juvenile at that, a bird I had been really wanting to see but never thought I would find here of all places. I noticed some colour rings on the bird as well, first indications seem to be that this bird was ringed in Norway at some point within the last 2 weeks or so, some journey for a tiny bird! I got some photos but they really don't do this lovely bird justice as the light was quite poor.

Today I visited Barna pier again and this time there were much more Dunlin, I found a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper amongst them, another brilliant little wader, it would've been a first for me had I not seen 2 that another local birder friend of mine had found yesterday. The views of the Barna pier bird were great though and I got to appreciate the bird in all its glory. I think these two little birds have earned a place on my list of favourite birds!