Yes, sadly it didn't turn up in the catching are the next day. A normal goldie is indeed possible and common things being common etc, but apparently there was a Pacific in the area last year (or at least so said the guy I was with, who is head of a wader ringing group), so who knows indeed.
I'd expect a Pacific Golden Plover to immediately appear strikingly small, especially if you'd already handled 20 or so the previous day, but unfortunately if it was potentially a Pacific then you missed your best opportunity, that of checking for grey-brown axillaries, biometrics too would have assisted but the aforementioned plumage/structural details in your post don't rule out Golden Plover which can often throw up runt individuals, sick birds (which can often appear structurally different) or frankly, a normal bird as I'm sure you're well aware, birds in the hand often appear remarkably different from seeing them in the field.
Seen on the Wash near Freiston shore RSPB 02/09/08 (if anyone is in the area I can give coordinates from Google Earth).
We were doing a recce for a cannon net catch out on the salt marsh and found a lone golden plover juv which just looked wrong. Speckling on the breast extended to the legs so only under-tail coverts were white, head seemed too big, neck too long and bill too long. We'd caught 20 Golden plover the previous day so had plenty to compare it to.
Any comments would be welcome, we suspected Pacific but not strongly enough to report it. If anyone else does though, you heard it here first!
