not sure what I have got

Question

Hi all 
 Took the following over the backwaters today - didn't think we would see much as it was bitterly bitterly cold, but there were an assortment of geese and other waders - trouble is I'm not entirley sure what they are! 
 Shelducks? 
 
 Lapwing? 
 
 what about this? 
 
 and what is this - sorry not the closest of shots - some type of sandpiper? (have another photo that might be a bit better if this one is no good) 
 
 and the next 2 another goose which isn't in my book so not sure - 
 
 
 There were many others but so far away that I couldn't get a close enough shot. 
 I know I have come to the right place and many of you can help me out. 
 Thanks

Buzzard · Accepted Answer

Hi Kezmo, 
 nice collection of shots. 
 The First picture are Shelducks. 
 The Second and Third are Lapwing 
 The Forth does look like a Common Sandpiper 
 The Fith and Sixth is a Brent Goose 
 Regards Buzzard

Colin Wilkinson · Answer

As someone once said, the only silly questions are the ones you DON'T ask, because then you'll never know... 
 The birds we know as 'plovers' all belong to a single family of closely related wading birds known as "Charadriidae". My copy of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology says there are 62 species around the world. If you look at the images in your book and squint a bit you should be able to see they do share some common physical characteristics even though the feather patterns differ (though not that much - little ringed and ringed plovers are notorious confusion species for beginners, and if you throw in other similar species from around the world like Wilson's plover, killdeer and long-billed plover you begin to see the family resemblance!) 
 As well as the plovers we call plovers, the family also contains the "lapwings" - which are just bigger plovers called something slightly different in English! We have one lapwing species in Britain (aka 'green plover' in some people's eyes), but there are many others around the world. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to see grey-faced lapwing in China, for example. Many have quite vibrant colour combinations and broad wing tips. But if you mentally remove the tufts and crests and wattles that many lapwings flaunt you can appreciate they are plovers under the skin... 
 A typical plover species has a short bill (much shorter than many other wader families anyway) which it uses to pick up food from the surface of mud, sand etc or just beneath it. Many plovers are active, 'visual' feeders - they will stand for a second, scanning a few feet ahead for visible signs of invertebrate food, then run forwards, stop, 'tip over' and pick up the item before repeating the process. This kind of action is easy to identify at extreme range as 'plover like' even if you can't identify the species. Most nest in a bare scrape in earth, sand or shingle, relying on good camouflage for concealment. 
 Physically plovers tend to be medium-legged, quite rotund in form, and many have banded patterns of black and white especially laterally across the head and chest. Their voices are often shrill, melodic whistles. For my money, the calls of a flock of winter lapwings and golden plovers is one of the most magical sounds of the English winter landscape.

Colin Wilkinson · Answer

Hi Kezmo 
 That wader shot is a real toughie and it's the only one I think Buzzard might have missed the bullseye on. Having downloaded it and taken a very, very close look (including some tweaks to the contrast and colour saturation on my PC) I think it's a grey plover. This would be much more likely on the coast in mid-winter, and in substantial numbers, than common sandpiper - most common sands are summer visitors, they tend to stick to freshwater habitats and even on migration it's unusual to see more than a handful together. 
 Any third opinions out there? 
 Colin

Colin Wilkinson · Answer

Hi Kezmo 
 The top photo clears up the original mystery nicely. You've got (from left to right) a grey plover; a redshank; a dunlin; and a lapwing. Nice going to get four wader species in one close-framed shot! Grey plovers have a 'marbled' back pattern unlike the plainer grey of most other winter waders. Also, in your original shot it looked too large-headed for one of the smaller 'calidris' type waders like dunlin, knot or sanderling. And finally I couldn't see any sign of a longish bill in spite of the fact it was facing right. 
 The second photo is another nice challenge. Based on the size of the bird on top of the bank at the right hand end of the flock, which is definitely a curlew, I would say that most of the rest are knots (about 80% sure) or possibly bar-tailed godwits (about (20% uncertainty!) with three or four dunlins in amongst them as well - at the water's edge towards the left you can see three grey waders which are definitely smaller, I think these are dunlins. 
 We love a challenge!