Wednesday 26th September

I paid a quick, or rather rushed, visit to Wouldham at lunchtime to try and catch up with the Pectoral Sandpiper that had been reported earlier in the day. My heart dropped when I saw the river was at high tide, lapping on the grass on the west bank. However a scout around threw a Common Sandpiper up from the bank behind the church, and just as I was about to call it quits I saw 2 birds fly low across the water after being disturbed by a dog walker on the west bank. Another Common Sandpiper, dutifully followed by the juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper. Both flew obligingly close, before settling onto the grass by a green diamond navigational post on the west bank, opposite the church. Both were there when I left at 13:20.