Sanderling

Hi LaurenL, this spotting raises a number of points. 1. Where was the bird seen and what was its habitat? Your map pin shows it to be in a car park in the middle of town and you have put nothing in the Habitat field to suggest what habitat it was actually in. The picture suggests it was on sand but a car park can be covered in sand. 2. What were its actions, feeding habits. These when noted can be entered in the Description field. In Autumn/winter many small wading birds can be confusingly similar plumage-wise but they can often be separated by their habitat, feeding actions, etc. In this instance the 2 most likely are Sanderling and Little Stint, the former having no hind toes. Sanderlings are mainly shore birds feeding singly or in small groups close to the shore line and running in and out with the waters edge as each wave comes in. They occasionally use brackish (sea and fresh water mix) lakes where they will mix with Stints which usually feed in the muddy edges and seem to have a preference for fresh water, their diet being Diptera (flies and suchlike and their larvae). You can find more information on correctly completing a spotting in our FAQs at http://www.projectnoah.org/faq link at the bottom of each PN page.

A Sanderling should not have a hind toe sticking out like that! They don't even have hind toes.Stint is more likely but very rare..perhaps one of the Sandpipers...