A Knot not a Dunlin

Trying to find some reasonable weather I headed to Thanet, which, according to the BBC weather website was due rather more sunny periods than around Sandwich. I stopped off at Ramsgate Western Undercliff but the tide was much higher than I'd expected and most of the beaches were under water. A dozen or so Turnstone were sitting out the high tide on one of the concrete groynes but other than those not much else stirred. For no apparent reason I decided to head for Foreness Point, Margate. Unsurprisingly the tide was high here as well but I walked along the lower promenade and found several Fulmar on the cliff face. As the cliffs aren't that high here it offered a good chance for some photos.

 The tide was receding slowly so I walked back up to the top, along past the water treatment work and looked out onto the sands of Botany Bay, a small flock of about 17 Ringed plover were gathered on the tide line so I decided to make my way down to them to see if I could get some shots.

Taken from the cliff top showing about half of the flock.

Just before heading off down to the beach I spotted this Black redstart, I only had time for one shot and was on the wrong settings really, I'd been using 1/3rd stop under exposure for the Fulmar but because the Black redstart was against a light background of the distant sand it could have done with using 1/3rd of a stop over exposure, I've lightened it on the computer.

I scrambled down onto the beach through the obviously often used little gully down the cliff and walked back towards the water treatment works and the Ringed plovers. Inevitably, before I got anywhere near them they were chased off the shore by an over exuberant dog, twice! I carried on partly in the hope that they would come back - they didn't, and that I might see the redstart again as it appeared to drop down to the beach from where I'd seen it, I didn't.

However, all was not in vain, the first mussel beds were just beginning to be uncovered by the receding tide and about a dozen Turnstone were pacing around the concrete blocks under the water treatment works, waiting to feed. I then spotted what I took to be a Dunlin amongst the Turnstone but it turned out to be a Knot, which was a photo first for me (may well have been a sighting tick as well, not really sure if I'd seen one before).

About the same size as the Turnstone and a straight bill, not slightly downturned.

Obviously larger than a Sanderling (Dunlin are about the same size as Sanderling).

I had to wait until I'd got home to confirm my identification, I'd not got a guide book with me, but I tried to take lots of photos of it with other birds to help the ID. I'd made this mistake in Guadeloupe, relying on the photo of the bird in isolation, where all relative comparisons are lost making ID much more difficult.

Sanderling looking for food.

Pleased with my 'discovery' and what I hoped were going to be some reasonably shots of the Knot and Fulmar, I headed up the gully to the cliff top and home for lunch but was distracted for a further 30 minutes by a pair of Stonechat. They did what most Stonechat seem to do, pose for a photo but fly off to a slightly more distant perch before you're ready, continuing to give you the run around for as long as you're prepared to play, I favoured food over another shot of a Stonechat.