There were plenty of shorebirds on and around Holden Creek this evening, but once again, with the incoming tide I was marooned on the higher ground - the blackberries and other dense vegetation along the sluiced channel bank is way too thick to get through at the moment, so a muddy crossing at low tide is the still the only option for access to the marsh. Maybe I should get myself a kayak...?
Even at distance, and looking into sun, I could make out at least 100 calidrids feeding in the mud. They seemed to be all least and western sandpipers - a ratio of 60/40 respectively.
I couldn't see any semi-palmated sandpipers amongst them, though I suspect better viewing conditions would have revealed one or two.
There were certainly no other larger species with them, although at one point I heard a greater yellowlegs calling from somewhere - presumably out at the back of the marsh.
Scanning over the marsh in search of any nighthawks I picked up a distant flying wader, which eventually turned out to be my first Wilson's snipe of the autumn.
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