Purple Sandpipers at Holland Haven

25th November 2025

The main target today was the Purple Sandpipers at Holland Haven but I decided to walk along the sea wall from Frinton in the hope of finding some Snow Buntings. No luck there, but I did manage to find a pair of Stonechats. There is the male...................

........................and the female.

Once at Holland Haven, the first job was to scan the outflow for sandpipers. At the far end of the outflow was a group of Herring Gulls with a single Great Black-backed Gull amongst them.

There was also a couple Turnstones running around amongst them which eventually came closer to shore for some shots.

Still no sign of any sandpipers so I sat down and poured a cup of tea and settled down in anticipation. Abour five minutes later I looked up and there on the outflow were two Purple Sandpipers which had obviously sneaked in while I was enjoying my cuppa.

I quickly packed lunch away and got into position with the sun behind me. For some reason they were feeding half way along the outflow which is unusual as they usually prefer feeding on the seaweed at the landward end. But today they chose to feed on what appeared to be bare concrete, but presumably looking for tiny micro-organisms within the cracks.

Well, what a fantastic day at Holland Haven, and good to catch-up with Mike O'Hanlon who was patrolling his estate.