Autumn and the constant stream of Atlantic low pressure systems continues to keep giving. This type of weather can drag across rare birds from the America's and we have already seen quite a few - some I've managed to connect with like the long-billed dowitcher, others I've missed, like the yellow warbler. This weeks stars are down in Dorset. In midweek a juvenile stilt sandpiper was seen at Lodmoor. The is a pretty rare "Yank" wader I've seen once before, coincidentally at Lodmoor three years ago. The usual suspects headed down and lightning did strike twice. A little stint which had been present for a couple of days was looked at a bit closer and suddenly became a very similar and very rare least sandpiper! With my Friday non-work day arriving it was a no-brainer, 4.20 alarm, feed some confused cats and hit the road. By 7.15 I was parking at Lodmoor, a really good reserve on the outskirts of Weymouth which punches way above its size on rarities.
It is a nice compact reserve, reed-beds in the middle with lots of nice marshy edges for waders. There were quite a few other birders wandering around early-doors trying to find the stars of the show. A vey brief and distant view of the stilt sandpiper helped the mood then the word went out that the least sandpiper was showing from the "viewing shelter", an open hide on the north edge of the reserve.
Least sandpipers are tiny birds, as you can see from this uncropped shot above!
Once you get it's a tiny wader, like a little stint, this shot, although still distant shows you why people re-assigned it as a least sandpiper - little stint have black legs, least sandpipers have green/ yellow ones like this!!! For I suppose 30 minutes around 10-15 birders watched it feed on the marsh edge, sometimes coming a bit closer but never that near.
It was a very smart bird, beautifully clean and white belly with a mottled back and a medium-sized, slightly down-curved bill - larger again than a stint. We barely even noticed the great white egret pottering about near it, a bird that even 5 years ago would have produced a twitch on it's own but now is a breeding resident in increasing numbers.
Suddenly, two other waders flew in on our right and we immediately saw one was unusual: "stilt sand" went up the cry.
It is the bird on the right, with a common redshank as a friend. It only stayed for about 15 seconds before flying off but we saw it land, in an area with good viewing, so a mass gathering of optical gear ensued followed by a rapid march to the western edge of the reserve.
After a few minutes of scanning we found it amongst a small flock of gulls. Photo conditions weren't good at it was into the sun, but it was reasonably close.
So what makes this a stilt sandpiper. Well, it does have really long legs for a start, which are yellow in colour. In size it is about a redshank but wades in very deep water with those long legs. It has a medium-length bill, very slightly down curved, a clear eye-stripe under a brownish cap and a mottled chest.
It you get it end-on it also has a vey tin-profile, not fat and rounded like many waders.
This video hopefully will give you a better ode of the total jizz of the bird.
Two good ticks therefore, one a lifer and it was only 9.30 in the morning.
Next stop was Portland. I hoped to see a third rare Yank wader - buff-bellied sandpiper - but it had done a disappearing trick, so I tried the quarry at the bill for a wryneck.
These are small woodpeckers, classic Autumnal migrants, and this has been a good year for them. They are notoriously skulky birds though, so I thought it might be a long wait (Martin had dipped on Sunday despite spending an hour or more looking for it!). Fortunately I totally jammed in on it. Three blokes were on the edge of the quarry and pointed me straight onto it, sitting on a rock at the back of the quarry.
It is there honest, can you see it?? I said they were skulky!!! It then disappeared for 15 minutes or so before flying across the quarry and feeding in some long grass.
As I said, they are a nightmare to see, and it is in the photo above, feeding on ants and insects in the grass.
On the times it did show you could see why they are so hard to see - their plumage is really cryptic and gives great camouflage. They are incredibly smart birds. It never showed any better and went into deeper cover so I left it and headed back home via lunch at my mother-in-laws. One last stop though was Staines reservoir again, which continues with its purple patch of rare waders. This time a grey phalarope on the North basin.
In the photo above it's just to the right of the gull - another small bird at great distance. Some time this Autumn I'd really like to get a bird close and with the sun behind me, but hey, I'm not complaining with the quality around.
Like the red-necked phalarope earlier this year this is a wader that doesn't wade - it feeds on the surface of the water, as this one was doing. There are 3 phalaropes which visit this country - Wilsons, which is rare and has a really long, thin beak, red-necked and grey. The latter two are hard to tell apart out of breeding plumage and you have to look for subtle differences such as bill thickness.
By the time I'd finished that was 4 new year ticks. That takes me to 256 which is now my highest year total so with over 3 months to go I should be able to get a really solid total. Bring it on!!
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