Fun on the beach

Having studied Chamaeleo's recent Folkestone photos and done some googling, I now think these are sanderlings and not turnstones. I've been trying to blip them for ages, but they are nippy little things that take off when you get too close, and move fast when they are on the ground. This is the best I've managed yet. They are fun to watch, like a gaggle of children running into the waves, then squealing and running back when their feet get wet. Eventually they all flick into the air and whirl over the sea, their wings flashing in the sunlight.

While on the beach I also saw a large crowd of mallards happily setting sail on the waves. Is this normal?? I've never seen them in the sea before!

::cough:: just in case you are missing them, I have a spare dune blip. I decided I should go for the unrepeatable blip today. Not that any dune blip is repeatable of course! The light, shadows, shapes, edges are always different.

PS this day last year was a bird blip too! ------------------------>