A decent wader at last

First thing this morning I had a quick look at Collingham Pits, where there were actually a few waders - single Greenshank and Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sands, plus 2 fly-over Snipe. I then went to Langford to assist with the morning part of their volunteer task pulling Himalayan balsam, After two hours we'd cleared the patch and produced a large pile of several thousand plants!

A big pile o'balsam

I then had a look for Hairstreaks, finding both Purple and White-letter quite easily (and thanks to Jenny at Langford for pointing me in the right direction with the White-letters!).

Purple Hairstreak

White-letter Hairstreak

After success with the butterflies, I returned to Collingham. I was planning to look for Hairstreaks here too, but by now it was quite windy and a bit overcast, so I decided to leave it for another time. So back to birding; I couldn't find any of this morning's waders on Ferry Lane Lake, although there was a Dunlin on the Silt Lagoon, so decided to see what was happening at Mons Pool. Not much at first, but as I wondered up the western boundary, I spotted something that looked interesting... maybe just another Dunlin... but no, a Wood Sandpiper! A decent wader at last; I was rather pleased. 

Looks interesting...

Wood Sandpiper