Pectoral Sandpiper

This image is digiscoped

This juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper has been present at a site called Kelling Water Meadows for about 10 days now, sticking loyally to the one pool present. On my arrival at the site, however, the bird was not present. Typical, I thought, but I was informed by a couple of local birders that in the mornings the bird is sometimes elsewhere and will fly in at some point. Half an hour went by and then, on cue the Pectoral Sandpiper flew in and proceeded to feed and show very well.

The photos show very nicely the white 'braces' on the back of the bird and the neat 'scaly' pattern of the upper feathers, which identify it as a juvenile. The adult bird is less 'scaly' and the 'braces' are either more faint or absent altogether. This bird has not been hatched and raised in this country, it will have been blown off course whilst on migration in America. The Pectoral Sandpiper is the most common of all American vagrants to Britain and Ireland and September to October is the prime time of the year for them to visit.

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!

Feeling a bit Ruff!

My previous post (which I have now removed) showed photographs of a bird that I thought to be that of a Pectoral Sandpiper. It has kindly been brought to my attention by a couple of far better and more experienced birders than myself that they are photographs of a Ruff, or more accurately a juvenile Reeve (the name for a female Ruff)! Thankyou to Mike Weedon and Will Bowell for their kind and constructive help.

This has been an invaluable lesson for myself to not get carried away taking photographs and actually look at the bird properly! Also, it shows how easy it is to be swayed on an i.d. when you have a group of birders all wanting to see a particular bird, seeing something similar and all agreeing that the i.d. is correct. There was one voice amongst the group who bravely said that he thought it could be a Ruff, but was out voted. I will next time listen and then maybe not look like such an idiot on a public forum!

Below are a couple of photographs of a Pectoral Sandpiper that Mike and Chris Orders have kindly let me use to illustrate what a Pec Sand looks like.

Lesson learnt, humility is supposed to be a virtue.

Copyright Mike Weedon
Copyright Chris Orders