Pectoral Sandpiper

A few weeks ago I put up a post showing what I mistakenly thought to be a Pectoral Sandpiper, a bird that is a regular visitor to our shores in the U.K. I was shown to be incorrect in my assumption, but this time, I am showing some rather distant record shots of a juvenile `Pec` that was present at Frampton Marsh last weekend.

The bird is the larger one of the two in the last photo and the middle sized one in the other two. The other birds digiscoped are a Ruff (the larger one) and a Little Stint (the smaller one). I suppose the photos, if nothing else, give a useful comparison to wader size and shape.

The bird had given me the run-around earlier by disappearing for an hour just before we arrived on site and despite searching we were unable to re-find it, but on returning to the visitor centre I noticed a large group of birders excitedly looking through scopes and binoculars in the area that we had just walked from, a 15 minute walk. Typical, I thought! I was not, however, going to let this bird defeat me and so, I set off to finally `bag` this American wader. On arrival, the bird was showing well, if distantly and was then joined by the other two waders in the shots, giving the useful size comparison and then flew, never to be seen again! I got there just in time!