I made a quick visit over the border into the Dutch region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen this week and, as with my previous trip to the Netherlands, there were a lot of birds around, including geese, ducks, Spoonbills and even a hybrid Chilean x Greater Flamingo. The target of the twitch, however, was my lifer Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and the group of Ringed Plovers it was hanging out with conveniently flew in and landed fairly close by as soon as I arrived. The Dutch name for it translates as blond cavalier, and this juvenile certainly had a lovely, yellowish tinge to its plumage. At one point, I had the Buff-breasted, a Pectoral Sandpiper and a Little Stint in the field of view of my telescope all at once! Pectorals do nest in eastern Siberia but, as far as I know, Buff-breasted only breeds in North America, so it's anybody's guess just where the group of Ringed Plovers accompanying these two rarities have come from. I did manage this distant record-shot of the Pectoral Sandpiper but my attempts at the Buff-breasted were even fuzzier so, instead, here are some great pictures taken by somebody with a much bigger camera.
