After another Long-tailed Skua being seen from the Fishing Boats and photographed well on the 10th September I was back there early just in case it or another decided to appear. However, it was not to be but in an hour and a half of watching, 4 Balearic Shearwaters, a Manx Shearwater, a Merlin and Marsh Harrier in off and 15 or so Arctic Skuas along with plenty of Gannets off shore made it an ok start to the day.
It was a windy and showery day and on the way home for breakfast I decided to stop off at ARC and check the area from Hanson hide. There was no-one else in the hide and I made it just in time as heavy showers kept crossing the peninsular. As there wasn't any change in birds from the previous day and there was a gap in the showers I started to close the shutters and was just about to close the last one when the heavens opened and I caught a glimpse of 4 waders flying past the open shutter and landing on one of the islands in the deluge. 3 were Ruff but the fourth was something different. Through bins and in the pouring rain it looked like a Pectoral Sandpiper. I quickly setup my scope again and confirmed my id, a juvenile Pec and put the news out to the locals. The Pec showed well but preferred to stay within a group of resting Shoveler which kept on hiding it from view. After about 40 minutes, a Hobby flying over caused most of the birds to freeze and the Pec which was standing in water to get very low down. It flew off shortly afterwards, heading to the south west and gaining height. To my knowledge it hasn't been seen in the area again.
