Time On My Hands.

With a little time on my hands yesterday afternoon I went off to Aldcliffe to see if I could find the long staying American wader which has actually been here for a month to the day having been found here on October 21.

A downpour had just passed over and the light was beginning to fade, though what was left of the sun shone into my face, very nice but didn't help the chances of getting good views of this bird even if I found it.

Lesser Yellowlegs Tim Kuhn

But with a little persistence I did come across a bird semi-silhouetted looking suspiciously like it wasn't a Redshank, and wait a minute, there's another bird next to it now and this is definitely not a Redshank 'cos it's too small. So now its my lucky day and I've got a Lesser Yellowlegs, and a Wood Sandpiper 'rubbing shoulders'....isn't birding great! 

Wood Sandpiper Antonio Puigg

This is my sixth Lesser Yellowlegs, and I've had one or two Wood Sandpipers, my best record was on 7 October 1999 when I saw seven together on the Eric Morecambe pools. This Wood Sandpiper at Aldcliffe is regarded as being 'late' and wintering records are very rare, though I spoke to a birder from Cheshire yesterday who told me he'd seen Wood Sandpiper in Norfolk one year in January. There is one breeding record in England, a nest with eggs and an adult seen in Northhumberland in 1874, there are other claims which are less well authenticated.

As for the Lesser Yellowlegs - which as become a regular visitor to the County of Lancashire - the first record for the north of the county didn't come until 1995 when I found one on the Eric Morecambe pools at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve. But an amazing record of two birds which moved around - both together and independently - between Banks, Marshside, and Martin Mere during a twenty month stay in the area had them registering as 'possibly breeding' during their lengthy stay from October 1997 to May 1999.