A super sandpiper weekend - Baird's at Worcestershire & Semipalmated in Hampshire

Having almost completed the extensive collection of sandpipers on the British list with just 4 remaining (Least, Upland, Baird’s and Semipalmated) it was a nice surprise when a juvenile Baird’s Sandpiper turned up at Upton Warren in Worcestershire, just over an hour down the road.

With the bird still present the next morning, we made the trip down the M6 in an effort to see this attractive sandpiper, and duly paying our £3 permit fee, headed over to the furthest hide on the reserve where the Baird’s had been showing.

With a juvenile Ruff also present for company, we soon locked on to the much smaller Baird’s, busily feeding on the far edge of the flash in the mud and working its way around the pool. Despite the distance making any decent photographs impossible, the views through the scope were excellent - the beautiful patterns on the back standing out even at range and the distinctive elongated profile created by the long primary projection clearly defined.

Terrible phonescoped record shots of the Baird's! 

With a long, thin body and shorter legs, Baird’s Sandpipers are one of the most distinctive American peeps that make it over the Atlantic, and despite never coming in front of the hide during my visit as it has been doing on the following days, it was still fantastic to see and is now firmly in place as one of my favourite American sandpipers.

With a Semipalmated Sandpiper at Titchfield Haven also being retrospectively ID’d from photographs on Saturday evening (it was originally thought to be a Little Stint by on site observers), this provided the perfect opportunity to make it a double sandpiper weekend. Semi-ps have been a particular nemesis bird of mine for a while now, having previously dipped 2 in the past while a third bird at Hoylake could never be narrowed down from either a Semipalmated or Western Sandpiper.

Despite being over 3 hours away, the fact that the Semi-p was showing particularly well and still present the next morning saw us head down to Hampshire in the glorious sunshine in search of my second American sandpiper of the weekend.

Arriving at the hide and with the Semi-p instantly on show on a distant muddy bank, it took all of 5 seconds of viewing before the whole scrape was flushed! Potential nightmare! Luckily, the Semi-p and associating Little Stint didn’t go far, instead flying closer on to one of the smaller islands and providing the perfect opportunity to study the subtle differences between these two exceptionally similar species.

Semipalmated Sandpiper showing well!

Being roughly the same size (the Semi-p was a touch smaller than the Little Stint), the Little Stint was slightly brighter marked than the Semipalmated’s uniform grey colour, also demonstrating marginally darker and blacker legs in comparison. The lack of white tram lines on the back of the Semi-p was also conspicuous, allowing us to easily separate the two at a glance.

Spot the difference! The Semi-p is on the left while the Little Stint is on the right

As with the Semipalmated Sandpipers we saw in New York last year, I again got the impression of a slim bodied wader, slightly thinner than the Little Stint’s dumpier posture which again proved a useful characteristic in the field for separating the two.

Often hard to distinguish from the similar Western Sandpipers in America (such as the tricky Hoylake peep several years agao) the lack of any fiery tones in the upper scapulars as shown on Westerns and the shorter, straighter bill all aided in confirming the identification of what I consider to be quite a hard species to ID.

Luckily, the Semi-p flew right in front of the hide before we left, offering amazing views and emphasising the point that it is far more satisfactory to travel a longer distance for a bird that shows well than to get poor views of a bird that perhaps isn’t as far.

Alex's super video of the Semi-p - a big thanks to him for making the epic drive too

A great weekend full of sandpiper success and hopefully the start of what promises to be a fruitful autumn as far as American vagrants are concerned. 

Greater Yellowlegs - Titchfield Haven in Hampshire

When news broke of a Greater Yellowlegs at Titchfield Haven down in Hampshire at the beginning of the year, I was all the way up in Scotland having just been watching the Harlequin duck on the river Don, with no feasible way of getting down there! With no sign the following day, it was assumed this would be a one day wonder – no one could have predicted that exactly 3 months later to the date it would reappear in the same place, incredibly while I was up in Scotland again having just been watching Ptarmigans, Crested Tits and Capercaillies! Again, with no feasible way of getting down to Hampshire and the bird disappearing the following day, it wasn’t until a week or so later that it reappeared, when work and various other factors prevented us from connecting.

Luckily, I was awake bright and early when news broke for the fourth time this year that the bird had returned to Titchfield, remarkably on the same flooded field where it was first found, and after an hour or so we were well on our way down south hoping to connect with this beautiful American wader.

Arriving at the small car park next to the public footpath on Bridge Street, we made the short walk through the gorgeous fields and along the canal, serenaded by the calling calls of Cuckoos and Cetti’s Warblers whilst trout splashed in the clear water next to us. Eventually reaching Posbrook Floods, (the flooded field in question that the Greater Yellowlegs was favouring), we joined the small crowd of birders and immediately got our scopes on this rare American vagrant. Originally dozing quite distantly with a flock of Black-tailed Godwits, after a while it thankfully awoke, probing around in the vegetation and wading through the water in search of small morsels to feed on.

Flying considerably closer to join the nearer Godwit flock, we could really see the beautiful speckled plumage in much better detail, and as it waded through the water the bright golden legs were exceptionally obvious.

Superficially very similar to the more frequently recorded Lesser Yellowlegs, there are various subtle differences to aid identification between the two. When in mixed flocks the obvious size difference is an easy way to tell the two apart, but solitary birds can be considerably more difficult to determine, with bill size and structure the main feature to look out for. The bill on the Greater Yellowlegs is considerably longer, being roughly 1 and ½ times the length of the head, whilst the bill of the Lesser is just barely longer than the head. The Greater Yellowlegs’ bill is also quite blunt-tipped and slightly upturned compared to the straighter, sharp pointed bill of its smaller cousin. The underparts are also a good feature to make a note of, with Greater Yellowlegs having more extensive dark barring as opposed to the plainer underparts of the Lesser.

The barring on the underparts is obvious

Watching contently for a while, the Yellowlegs then remarkably flew right in front of the assembled crowd to the edge of the pool, giving excellent views to the 20 or so people there (the majority of birders in the country had evidently already connected on one of its previous 3 visits!) We could really admire the subtly beautiful patterns on the feathers and the egg-yolk coloured legs up close, and the bird happily made its diagnostic call on several occasions for us to hear – 3-4 high pitched piercing notes. This is also a very reliable way to tell the two species apart, with Lesser Yellowlegs making a short, rapid, 2 note whistling call that is much softer.

Posbrook Flood, Titchfield Haven

With just under 50 records of Greater Yellowlegs in the UK - the last one being the well twitched individual that overwintered back in 2011/12 in Northumberland, the Loch of Strathbeg and various points in the Highlands of Scotland - it was great to finally catch up with the rarer of the two Yellowlegs, having only seen my first Lesser in Buckinghamshire only a year earlier last spring.

Going missing for such long periods, it’s clear that this American vagrant is spending its time elsewhere in the vicinity that just isn’t being birded, either on the river Meon, on a private pool somewhere or simply out of sight on one of the lagoons at Titchfield. Either way, it’s been something of a mystery - I’m just glad it gave us a second (or fourth!) chance to connect!

The Yellowlegs with Godwits - the large size of the bird is apparent

With a Bonaparte’s gull showing well nearby in Southampton, we spent the rest of the day trying to locate it, first at Chessel Bay then on to Riverside Park near the Cobden Bridge. Unfortunately, there were only Black-headed Gulls present for the afternoon, and it wasn’t until half an hour later when we were enjoying a delicious meal of Crispy Mongolian Lamb and Chilli fried Chicken at one of my favourite restaurants in Southampton, the news came out that it was showing well on the jetty! Bad timing or what! Hopefully another North West bird will make an appearance soon that I can catch up with!!

Ring-Billed Gull in Hampshire returns for its 13th Year

Day 3 of our south coast road trip and we headed off to the Siberian Stonechat in glorious sunshine – beautiful weather considering it was almost November. Upon arriving at the hide, after a brief 10 minute wait, the bird was relocated at the far end of the field amongst the reeds, favouring a bramble bush and using the thick reed stems lower down to perch on. Even at a distance, the paleness was clear to see, and the British Stonechats on the fence posts nearby offered a handy comparison between the two species.

Record shot of the Sibe Stonechat

Eager to search for the Firecrest that was reportedly heard as we were making our way down to the hide, we stopped by the pine trees on the way back to try and get a glimpse of one of my favourite birds. After several Goldcrests bumbling through the leaves, my eyes locked on to a bird flying in from the left and landing in the ivy covered tree right in front - raising my army bins I immediately saw the bright white stripe above the eye – bingo! Absolutely gorgeous birds, it’s always great to catch up with them, and this bird showed really well in perfect light before flitting off and away in to the dark pines – eluding everyone else that had by this time stopped to see what we were looking for.

The Harbour in Hampshrie

After learning that very morning that the regular wintering Ring-billed Gull had returned to Walpole Boating Lake in Gosport for an incredible 13^th year, we headed there to try and catch up with it. After dipping a first winter in an Asda car park in Liverpool a few years back, I was keen to see a much nicer adult bird in all its glory. Our target was quickly picked out sitting on a yellow buoy in the middle of the small lake, before offering amazingly close views as it landed on the boardwalk – completely unperturbed by our presence.

It would be interesting to find out where this bird actually summers – I would assume it doesn’t make the hefty crossing over the Atlantic every spring and autumn – so where does it go? It’s also remarkable that it always makes its way back to this small lake in the middle of Hampshire every winter – evidently the huge amount of bread and chips provided by the locals just prove too much for it to resist year on year!

Shy after all the attention....