Unidentified wader

Around midday last Friday - August 12 - I saw a couple of waders at Fairburn. They looked rather like redshanks, but I could not see any clear red legs. They were around the shallows, and one of them started behaving in a remarkable way that I've never seen before - dashing here and there, with much splashing, and very quickly: a couple of metres or so each time, three or four such dashes within no more than a couple of seconds. I guessed it was something to do with trying to catch the small fish that were probably there basking in the sun. I've since read that spotted redshanks do this. Could this have been a spotted redshank? Seems unlikely, as I don't normally get to see anything at all rare! If anyone can shed light on this it would be great.