Shep,
I was at Bottle Beach on Wednesday, April 26 just at high tide and for an hour after. There were hundreds of Dunlin, plus other shorebirds.
I did not see the distressed or dead birds you did. I did talk to a person who told me she was able to just reach down and pick up a Dunlin perhaps 30 minutes before I got there. None of the Dunlins that were in the dry grasses before the flocks showed up let me get anywhere near them.
Richard Walker