Cosheston Pill

My first outing having taken over Cosheston Pill for WEBS counts - a welcome antidote after Rob Lewis's and my birdless outing at Castlemartin Corse yesterday. I was trialling new methodology (with Annie's approval!), walking the length of the Pill on the south shore from the Cosheston end to the point opposite Waterloo, when the tide had just started to drop at 10.00. A great outing. Redshank, greenshank, curlew and gulls as soon as I'd left the car. Amazing just how much was roosting in the cord grass and Halimione salt marsh - over 300 teal, 43 snipe - and lots of wigeon in the little embayments. Little grebe, little egret, lapwing, shelduck, mute swans, oystercatcher, black-tailed godwit - and on the return leg, just as I was thinking it couldn't get any better, I disturbed a green sandpiper close to the shore. I couldn't catch it in flight, but it posed for me on the opposite shore even giving me a saucy view of its eye stripes. Record shots below

    I also found this lovely feather on the shore. Anyone care to identify - redshank, perhaps?