Whimbrels (numenius phaeopus) hover over their nest sites and flocks of dunlin (calidris alpina) swirl over the mud-flats. The ringed plover (charadrius hiaticula), smallest of the plovers, scuttles across the tundra and purple sandpipers (calidris maritima) peck through the seaweed on the beaches. In addition to the nesting birds, several passage migrants pass through on their way to Greenland and beyond - the red knot (calidris canutus), turnstone (arenaria interpres) and sanderling (calidris alba) are the most common.
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