What Links The Axe Estuary And Rutland Water?

The answer is....a White-rumped Sandpiper!

It was sometime last week, and I was aimlessly browsing the interweb, clicking from blog to blog, and I came across Username's blog;

http://username-beast.blogspot.com/

And I just happened to see this post here;

http://username-beast.blogspot.com/2011/10/rubythroats-n-local-stuff.html.

Which has this photo in it...

White-rumped Sandpiper Rutland Water (c) 'Username'

....I recognise this bird!!!

I quickly fired up BirdGuides and checked some dates, and surprise surprise, the Rutland Water White-rumped Sandpiper was last seen on Sunday 6th November - the day before I found one on the Axe.

I have since been emailing various bloggers and photographers, and I am now convinced it is indeed the very same bird. There are several features that seem to match exactly, including the patterning of moulted (grey) and umoulted (much darker) wing feathers (coverts and tertials) and scapulars. The head pattern, breast and flank streaking is also exactly the same.

Other features include a dark mark on the body where the wing joins, and a couple of odd streaks or marks on the lower flanks. These are all pointed out (along with some of the obvious similarities in the scaps/coverts) here...

Please click to enlarge

The left hand picture is a still taken from a video clip filmed by 'The Drunkbirder' of the bird at Rutland. The right hand photo is one of mine.

The main problem I had when comparing the two birds, is that the photos of the Rutland bird were pretty much all excellent! Whereas all the photos of our bird were 'record shots' at best. (No offence to any of our patch photographers - the light was truly awful).

If you want to see some excellent pics of the Rutland White-rumped Sand, look here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewberriman/6273864694/in/photostream/ (go left and right to see more)

http://seeswoodpool.blogspot.com/2011/10/18th-october-2011.html

I would like to thank all who have helped me from 'up north', in particular Dave Hutton, Colin Towe and John Hague. As a thankyou there will always be a link to your blogs from mine - oooohhhh I bet you are overjoyed at that ;-)

Actually, The Drunkbirder has written his own post about it, which can be found HERE.

Right, time to go out birding....

White-rumped Sand Pics

No time for any birding today - but I have just about got time to post two photos that have recently dropped into my inbox.

The first picture was taken by Ian McLean. I have tweaked with the light levels a little, but it is the best photo I've seen of the White-rumped Sandpiper...

Isn't it fab - what a bird!

And this picture, taken by Sue Smith, although not pin sharp (which can be understood due to the light levels, the distance, and the fact the bird was flying!), shows well the single most important feature of this species...

So aptly named!

Many thanks to both Ian and Sue for sending me these pics - and I hope you don't mind me posting them up here :-)

A Lifer On Patch!

I spent a lot of time out this morning, and covered a lot of areas. It started with five of us watching over Colyford Marsh soon after dawn hoping for last night's probable Rough-legged Buzzard - but nothing (and no pale Buzzards either!).

The best Lower Bruckland offered was a Chiffchaff, I walked almost all of Seaton beach which showed nothing, and when I did have a fright when a Wheatear appeared on the Tesco building site...I was immediately disappointed cuz it was just a Wheatear! So I was going to sum up my birding day with this photo...

A dead fish!

But then I had an early afternoon sweep of the Estuary....

I was scoping through the gulls which were resting north of Coronation Corner, and soon came across a nice adult Med Gull. I continued scanning up the river, and noticed a couple of small waders feeding in amongst the gull flock. I zoomed in and was immediately struck by an attenuated rear end! A look at the shape of the rest of the bird got my heart rate going - it must be a Baird's/White-rumped!!!

I ran from my car, and scoped it from the side of the Estuary just north of Coronation Corner. It was distant, but thankfully with a Dunlin. The different feeding action, shorter bill, and the whole shape of the bird prompted me to start making phone calls. This distance meant I could see very few plumage features - just that its mantle wasn't plain and it looked overall darker than the Dunlin, with some facial markings. Although I've never seen White-rumped Sand before, this is what it 'felt like' to me...

Ian Mc and Karen soon joined me, and they both agreed with my observations. It soon became much harder to view as it continued to walk even further up river, so Ian and I sped round to the Black Hole Marsh car park, where Gav met us. Many thanks to Karen for staying on the bird for us.

We promptly pegged it to the hide, and thankfully it was still there....a (we think an adult in mostly summer plumage) White-rumped Sandpiper! Although it did take a good 15 mins 'til it actually showed us its rump!

The light was 'flat' but good, and the views excellent of this stunning bird, but all my photos have turned out totally and utterly pants! This is the best I have...

It does kinda shows face pattern, mantle, streaks on upper breast and flanks, bill and body shape

I don't know why and how I have never seen this species before. I guess it's one of the birds I've just not been near, and thought never warranted twitching as I knew I'd bump into one one day. Funnily enough this autumn I was a day away from twitching the Davidstow bird, but it 'did a bunk!' I've been waiting for another 'nearish' one to appear - I was right to wait! :-)