Knots Landing

This is a flock of Knots and Dunlins coming into land. Or were they taking off? I took quite a few so I can't remember. And if you are very sharp-eyed you can spot a handful of Grey Plover in there too. The Knots are the larger ones with a grey rump, whereas the smaller Dunlins have a black bar down their rump. Most of the ones on the ground are Knot but there seem to be more Dunlin in the air compared with Knot. But Dunlins Landing doesn't quite make it as a title, which is a nod to that Dallas spin-off TV programme. I photographed them coming into roost on the Humber Estuary this morning.

 

Knots breed in Greenland and Arctic Canada and winter in Britain, especially around The Wash and Morecambe Bay. But they cannot make the journey without refuelling. So all of our Knot stop in Iceland for a few days to refuel both en route to and from the Arctic breeding grounds. The majority of Dunlin wintering in Britain are from Iceland and Scandinavia with a few from Eastern Greenland and Northern Russia

Done