Birding at its best - White-rumped Sand on North Uist

Last Wednesday we spent the day at RSPB Balnarald on North Uist. We were nearing the car so I decided to have a last go at photographing the waders on the beach. I see one quite close to me and got a bit of a surprise to see an adult White-rumped Sandpiper just a few metres away from me...

Over the next hour we were treated to some amazing views of the bird as it completely ignored us and fed at just a few metres range. We were expecting it to be the same bird as seen on a different part of the island three days ago, but comparing photos proved them to be different birds, with ours having very few obvious dark chevrons on the flanks and much less dark feathering on the upperparts. It was great to find a good bird and then get such good views of it; birding at its best!

White-rumped Sandpiper