Pacific Golden Plovers

We’ve just returned from a week on Lady Elliot Island. There were quite a few PGPs there . My query is about the size of these birds – they all seemed very small. Earlier this year, we saw 100s of PGPs on Norfolk Island and we also see many here on Bribie Island all the time each summer. All of these birds seemed to be much larger than what we saw on Lady Elliot. The birds were definitely PGPs. I mentioned these observations to another visiting birder who agreed that they did seem smaller. Is it just my imagination or is there some other possibility??? Brian