Small numbers stop off on their way south to refuel on food and rest up before continuing their long journey.
Today there were three birds, presumed to be juvenile or male wintering birds. Males in their breeding plumage have buff-brown upperparts, separated from a chestnut belly with a white band across the chest. They have a dark cap, white feathers around their beak and throat, and a marked white eyestripe.
Outside of breeding season, their coloration becomes more muted, and the white is not as bright. I was really impressed to how skilful they were at foraging in what seems on the surface like a stony, shallow soiled, moss covered limestone clifftop. I didn't image it containing so much food, but these birds were successfully catching worms almost every other minute.
And it wasn't just worms but crane flies, grubs and one even had a go at a flying insect as it whizzed past. Again they weren't bothered by our presence or out close proximity as they carried out pulling up worms from the shallow soil.
This strategy has led to the female dotterel having brighter feathers than the males, which plays a part in their reversed parental status.
This was simply a great morning on the Orme, with stunning wall to wall blue skies, flat calm seas scales and the Welsh mountains in the disnatnce, topped off with some stunning dotterel views.
These are fascinating birds which have an unusual breeding strategy as the females will lay three eggs per clutch but it is the male dotterel who incubate and raise the young while the females will travel and often have more eggs with different males.
