Close encounters of the bird kind

Whilst in Yorkshire I I took short break from birding and reverted to photographer mode. For most of the week I had lugged my camera around in all conditions and only very occasionally had cause to use it. So when a really good opportunity came along I had almost forgotten how much fun it can be, and for an hour or so as the tide came in at Bridlington I made merry with a handful of Purple Sandpipers, Turnstone and a single Knot. The birds were quite fearless which is exactly how I like them. The light was quite nice and the incoming water pushed the small flock extremely close in - at some points I needed to back off. I expect this kind of behaviour from Turnstones - these are after all waders whose favourite foodstuff is chips, but I wasn't hopeful that the four Purple Sandpipers would also strut their stuff in the same way. Perhaps the Turnstones gave them some confidence? Or perhaps they had it already, and I am just not familiar with Purple Sandpiper behaviour. It has been over five years since I have set eyes on one after all so this is entirely plausible. Here are a handful of images from the session - my shutter took a real beating, over a thousand frames of which most were identical. Digital photography does not encourage circumspection. But it does mean you can just go and go, which is exactly what I did.