21st August

Staff holidays have meant limited coverage of the island for the last few days, but the week's most notable sightings will be posted soon. Today's highlight was the reappearance of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper on the golf course. Most other notable sightings and counts were also waders, including 9 Black-tailed Godwits, 47 Bar-tailed Godwits, 204 Ringed Plovers, 133 Knots, 302 Sanderlings, 521 Turnstones, 90 Redshanks, 86 Curlews, 3 Whimbrels and a Greenshank. A Sandwich Tern and 6 Common Terns were in Linklet Bay and a Collared Dove and a Swift were at Holland House.

After a gap of several days since the last sighting, the possibility of today's Buff-breasted Sandpiper being a new bird had to be ruled out. Helpfully, good quality photographs show that the pattern of moulted scapulars is the same, indicating that it is indeed the same individual.