A couple of 'pipers!

There are a couple of 'sandpipers' currently in the country which interest me, one of which is quite close to home at Brockholes LWT Reserve in Lancashire and is....

Spotted Sandpiper

The Spotted Sandpiper (SS) is a North American wader which winters in the USA south to Uruguay and is now an annual visitor to these shores, in Lancashire the SS have always been found on reservoirs. A pair was found with a nest on Skye in the Highlands in 1975 but the breeding attempt failed. Another point of interest is that only four records exist in GB prior to 1950, there are also several records of birds wintering. The adult SS is a striking bird, but juveniles are much more subtly different to the closely related Common Sandpiper. I've personally only ever seen one bird at Stocks Reservoir on 18 May 2010. The first record of SS in Britain goes back to 1849 in Whitby, N.Yorkshire. As is usual with old records like this one the unfortunate individual was shot in the company of Dunlin.

The other 'sandpiper' is....

 Terek Sandpiper

A Terek Sandpiper (TS) is currently at Hauxley NWT Reserve in Northhumberland. The TS ranges Northeast Europe and Siberia and winters in S.Africa, S.Asia, and Australia. It is curious to note that there are no records in Britain prior to the 1950's, curious in that it is an easy bird to identify and is not likely to have been a bird overlooked. In Lancashire the only record of TS is that of a bird at Seaforth in June 2000, whilst the first record for N.W.England was at Frodsham in Cheshire in April 1999....the same individual? 

The first record of TS in Britain was of a bird found in 1951 at The Midrips in East Sussex. A couple of notes of interest about this bird was that it walked down a mud bank to wash every food item before eating it, and the second record of TS was that of a bird seen in Suffolk three days later which was thought to have been the Sussex bird.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....but I could see these three absent days coming last Friday, hopefully things will change tomorrow Tuesday. I take note of a Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper reported yesterday. Today a singing male Quail in a field by Lighthouse Cottage, and 2 Avocet on a pool south of Crook Farm, all four records at Cockersands.  

Well Spotted!

Spotted Sandpiper. Mike Watson.

Thanks to Mike Watson for this image of the Spotted Sandpiper currently at Stocks Reservoir. Please visit Mike's website HERE to learn a few statistics and the finder of this closely related to the Common Sandpiper and North American wader.

JB agreed we should make the short trip to Stocks Reservoir to see this small wader which gave excellent views not more than a 250 yards walk from the car park at the north end of the reservoir from the first hide, at one point it was accompanied by 2 Common Sandpipers for comparison which really wasn't necessary as the bird is in breeding plumage and shows the spots reminiscent of a Song Thrush. Also noted on an otherwise short visit here, a Garden Warbler and Blackcap both in song which was again good for comparison.

Having deciding to head off to some more familiar territory we pulled in to Langden Brook where a stroll to the small pump house produced just 2 Lesser Redpoll, a pair of Coal Tit obviously feeding young at a nest, 2 Dipper in flight together with the rear bird seemingly pursuing the front one, a Common Sandpiper, 4 Goldfinch, and it was good to hear yet another 2 Wren in song.

In the Tower Lodge area I found a male Redstart at Trough Bridge, and another behind the plantation at the lodge where I saw 3 Lesser Redpoll which is the same number seen here on 4 May, surely more lurking around somewhere here, also 2 Song Thrush, and I heard the Green Woodpecker 'yaffle' twice, in the stream a Dipper seen. At Marshaw a Common Sandpiper with JB having seen two birds during my absence.

A brief look in at Stoops Bridge gave us the male Pied Flycatcher whilst it's quite possible that a male I saw further downstream could well have be a second bird depending on the range of the first which appears to stick pretty close to the nest site. I personally saw a Spotted Flycatcher here whilst JB saw two, furthermore two birders already there when we arrived claim to have seen four all from a stand still position at the car park area....Mmmmm!

Today's disappointments were, having seen a pair of Stonechats opposite the small pump house on the track up the Langden Valley on 16 & 20 April none were found today when I had hoped to at least see them and even better maybe with young. Also no Spotted Flycatchers seen in the Trough Bridge/Tower Lodge/Marshaw area today, and still no House Martins at Christ Church, Abbeystead. 

And finally....

Thanks to Stuart Piner who achieved this excellent image of one of the - at least - seven Sedge Warblers from the road at Cockersands yesterday.

Nothing Riveting....

....but all birding is good birding.

Cattle Egret. Phil Slade.

But first....here's one of what I expect will be many excellent images we will be seeing soon from Fylde birder/ringer PS who has just returned from his holidays. PS was one of three Fylde birders I 'bumped into' today, a pretty decent trio to say the least and always something of interest to say, good to see you guy's. You can keep up to date with PS's birding/ringing/photographs HERE and when you do his header pic smacks you in the eye nicely. 

Of the few notables seen in my four hour slot today, I had to search from the west end of Conder Pool again to eventually find one of the Little Ringed Plovers lurking at the back side, but that added interest to my birding as it wouldn't be the same if they all stood in a line until you'd written them down in your book before jumping back into the car for the next call....now would it!  Another bird I'd rather not have seen on Conder Pool was the unforgiving Grey Heron which was in it's 'frozen' mode staring at the LRP as it quietly stabbed at the ground for food. Other than the summering drake Wigeon there was positively nothing else of note on the pool today but a Lesser Whitethroat near the old iron railway bridge was good, along with a Whitethroat seen moments earlier. Also noted had to be 2 Greenfinch rapidly becoming a rarity, a male Reed Bunting, a Wren always good to hear since our severe winter, and the 'local' Kestrel, it was also good to see 4 House Martins had arrived and were taking an interest in the eaves of River Wind's.

At Cockersands where I had 'missed' some good numbers - according to 'SP of the Fylde' - because of the state of the tide by the time I got there, I noted at least 7 Sedge Warblers from the road to the lighthouse from Bank Houses, also 3 Wheatear are still in the rolled soil  field, and 2 Skylarks were also of note.

At 7.48pm my RBA pager alerted me to a summer plumage Spotted Sandpiper at Stocks Reservoir....may be the cause of some burning rubber!

And finally....

The Pacific-slope Flycatcher, an image from my friend Paul Baker over there in BC Canada. Wouldn't mind coming across one of these little beauties at Tower Lodge maybe sometime....Thanks for the pic Paul.

CS,SS & SR.

Common Sandpiper on nest. Peter Guy.

Once again I am indebted to Peter Guy for the brilliant image of a Common Sandpiper on it's nest....Many thanks Peter.

The (CS) Common Sandpipers breeding in GB and wintering in West Africa are estimated at a rather uncertain 18,000 pairs, though another estimate is that of 24,000, but according to data from WeBS figures there is an indication of a decrease in numbers since the mid-1980's. Most of the migrant population passes through Southern Britain in March - May and July - October on its way between breeding sites in Scandinavia and wintering grounds in Iberia and North West Africa, British breeding birds have been recovered as far South as West Africa. Small numbers overwinter in GB and there are WeBS reports of 154 individuals at 105 sites between November 2004 and March 2005.

An overwintering site to add to the above figures is that of a bird which has wintered in our own locality at Conder Green in the winter's of 2008/9 and 2009/10 which is to be added to sites already known in this area which hold/have held wintering Common Sandpipers. Incidentally the closely related (SS) Spotted Sandpiper carries a record of a pair at Uig Bay, Skye in 1975 with a nest containing four eggs but the breeding attempt unfortunately failed, the species also carries records of 'several' wintering birds.

Spotted Redshank in winter plumage. Pete Woodruff.

Another bird regularly overwintering now at Conder Green is the (SR) Spotted Redshank, the unique wader which transforms from its winter coat of white - on its underparts - to its incredibly black breeding plumage in the summer. In fact this species can be seen at Conder Green almost all year round according to my records, for example it was absent from here only between 1 May - 20 June in 2008, and 18 May - 16 June in 2009.

I finally traced my Grey Wagtail records at Conder Green and I have been claiming not to have seen this species here for some time, in fact apparently I've not seen a Grey Wagtail at Conder Green since 23 January 2009 and that's heading up to 16 months ago....Mmmmm!