The Deskbound Birder: Least Sandpiper

Showing posts with label Least Sandpiper. Show all posts

Sunday, 17 September 2017

Lodmoor RSPB and Portland - 16th September

Sarah was in London with a friend today and so I used the opportunity to spend the day birding. With a Stilt Sandpiper and Least Sandpiper at Lodmoor and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Portland it was an easy decision to make. Unfortunately, the 15th bought news that both the Stilt Sandpiper and the Buff-breasted had departed but Least was a British tick so I decided to go for it. I was up at 04:30 and on the road by 05:15 after a few coffees. Arriving at Lodmoor at 06:45 I walked east along the path to the shelter where after a short scan I found the Least Sandpiper crouching on the mud around 100m away. After a while the bird started to feed showing its features, this was a subtle bird and I can easily see why the finder passed the bird off as a Little Stint. The pale legs were admittedly readily visible but the bird was as bright as a Little Stint with lovely rich buff edges to the mantle feathers, the pale mantle tramlines were perhaps a little less obvious than a Little Stint and with close inspection the virtual lack of a primary projection beyond the tertials could just be seen. The bill appears to be slightly longer and more decurved than Little Stint. After 10 minutes or so a Grey Heron flew over and flushed the bird to the far south-eastern corner of the reserve and after walking along the track the bird showed marginally better feeding with Dunlin. It was remarkably agressive towards the Dunlin and despite its smaller size always seemed to get the better.

Least Sandpiper - Lodmoor RSPB, Dorset

After getting my fill of the Least Sandpiper I spent 30 minutes or so birding the southern area of Lodmoor recording Great Egret, seven Yellow Wagtail, 20 Black-tailed Godwit, four Bar-tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper, 20 Dunlin, three Common Sandpiper, Marsh Harrier and a first-winter Mediterranean Gull.

Yellow Wagtail - Lodmoor RSPB, Dorset

Black-tailed Godwit (juvenile) - Lodmoor RSPB, Dorset

Bar-tailed Godwit - Lodmoor RSPB, Dorset

At just gone 10:00 I headed to Portland and parked in the main carpark at the Bill. After stomping around in the grassland to the west of the Pulpit Inn I decided to head for the Observatory Quarry where a Wryneck had been present since 6th September. When I arrived the bird was grubbing around in the grass feeding on ants and I was hoping that it would hop up onto the brambles but it remained very hidden as it fed mouse-like in the grass. After an hour or so I decided to go for a walk and wandered up over Top Fields and down to the main road via Sweet Hill. It was hot and slow-going, I recorded around 25 Wheatear, a Sedge Warbler, three Yellow Wagtail and a handful of Chiffchaff. Good numbers of Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin were feeding over the Crown Fields. Just as I got back to the Observatory the heavens opened and I took shelter in the bookshop. Once the rains had ceased I decided to head back for another look at the Wryneck and after a short wait it popped up into an Elder and showed brilliantly for 10 minutes as it dried itself in the sun. It was 15:00 and time to head for home after a good day in the field.

Wryneck feeding in the grassland where it was very inconspicuous - Observatory Quarry, Portland

Wryneck - Observatory Quarry, Portland

Sunday, 5 June 2016

Alaska - 5th June (Day 9)

The first part of the morning was spent at mile 13 an area of dry tundra with wetter sedge and cotton grass dominated areas. The scenery and habitat was fantastic and we saw American Golden Plover, Hudsonian Whimbrel, Short-eared Owl, Grey-cheeked Thrush, American Tree Sparrow, many Savannah Sparrow and Red Fox Sparrow. However, there were none of our main target species, Smith’s Longspur, present and we felt that the area was too try for it to be present. So, after a coffee at the cafe at Tangle Lake we birded a slightly different habitat at mile 19. This area consisted of a large lake surrounded by cotton-grass dominated damp bog with scattered willow swamp and a large lake. As we walked out across the bog we recorded many of the previous species plus Blackpoll Warbler, Least Sandpiper, Ring-necked Duck, Greater Scaup on and around the lake. After a short while we heard a different call and one that was familiar having listened to previous recordings, and there atop a Dwarf Willow was a stunning male Smith’s Longspur showing down to around 25 metres. Over the next couple of hours we enjoyed great views of around four males and a female as they set-up territory around the bog seemingly fairly new in.

American Golden Plover - Mile 13, Denali Highway

Short-eared Owl - Mile 13, Denali Highway

Grey-cheeked Thrush - Mile 13, Denali Highway

Corydalis species - Denali Highway

Lousewort species - Denali Highway

Blackpoll Warbler (female) - Mile 19, Denali Highway

Least Sandpiper in breeding habitat - Mile 19, Denali Highway

Smith's Longspur - Mile 19, Denali Highway

Smith's Longspur breeding habitat

This is the area at Mile 19 that we saw the Smith's Longspur, the birds were to the left

of and beyond the lake

Hudsonian Whimbrel - Mile 19, Denali Highway

After a beerless night last night and the success of seeing Smith's Longspur we went for supplies

Denali Highway

Having seen our main target we returned to Tangle Lakes for a coffee and a bit of a chill out before heading back west along the Denali Highway towards mile 30. The afternoon was fairly slow going as we tried, unsuccessfully, to see Arctic Warbler. The only new birds were four Tundra Swan and a stunning although distant adult Long-tailed Skua.

We spent the evening around the Denali Highway Cabins birding the grounds plus an area of spruce forest across the road seeing American Herring Gull, Northern Waterthrush, Spotted Sandpiper and Alder Flycatcher.

Tundra Swan - Mile 30, Denali Highway

Northern Harrier - Mile 13, Denali Highway

Mountain scenery - Denali Highway

American Herring Gull (adult) - Denali Highway Cabins

Denali Highway Cabins - Our accommodation near to Paxton

Links to the other days of the trip (click to view)

Day 1 – Background, international flights and Anchorage

Day 2 (Part 1) – Anchorage

Day 2 (Part 2) – St. Paul, Pribolofs

Day 3 - St. Paul, Pribolofs

Day 4 - St. Paul, Pribolofs

Day 5 - St. Paul, Pribolofs then fly to Anchorage

Day 6 –Seward

Day 7 – Kenai Fjords cruise then drive to Denali

Day 8 – Denali National Park and Denali Highway

Day 10 – Drive Paxton to Anchorage

Day 11 – Nome

Day 12 – Nome

Day 13 – Nome

Day 14 – Nome and travel to Barrow

Day 15 (Part 1) – Barrow

Day 15 (Part 2) – Barrow

Day 16 – Barrow

Day 17 – Barrow then travel back to Anchorage and international fli

Monday, 30 May 2016

Alaska - 30th May (Day 3)

We were up at 06:30 and headed down into town for breakfast at the galley in the fish packing factory. After breakfast we headed west along the coast to Ridge Wall, located in the south-west of the island. These are higher cliffs than at Reef Cliff and far more extensive and we spent much of the morning enjoying the diversity of Alcids here with good views again of Parakeet Auklet, Least Auklet, Tufted Puffin, Horned Puffin, Brunnich’s Guillemot and Common Guillemot. We saw Crested Auklet on the cliffs but these were a little distant and we hoped for better views. Also here were Black-legged Kittiwake, one or two Red-legged Kittiwake and Red-faced Cormorant. Unfortunately at the time of year we were on the island the Red-legged Kittiwake had not yet returned to their nest sites and therefore there were no birds on the cliffs. However, the coming and going of auks and the hustle and bustle of the cliffs was mezmerising and we probably could have spent all day here in various precipitous positions hanging over the cliffs photographing and simply enjoying the birds.

Parakeet Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet with Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet with Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet, the bill of this species is said to be adapted for catching jellyfish - St Paul Island

Brunnich's Guillemot - St. Paul Island

Red-faced Cormorant - St Paul Island

Northern Fulmar of race rodgersii, this race has wide plumage variation, the top bird being roughly intermediate while the lower, very striking bird, is at the darker end of the scale - St. Paul Island.

Black-legged Kittiwake of race pollicaris and sometimes split as Pacific Kittiwake - St. Paul Island

Red-legged Kittiwake - St. Paul Island

We then headed out to the south-west point of the island where we wandered out onto the rocky, wave-cut headland to try and get closer views of Harlequin Duck, however, the birds were remarkably skittish and flew at considerable range. Still, we had reasonable scope views and got nice views of Red-legged Kittiwake, Grey-crowned Rosy-finch and a more distant Short-tailed Shearwater off shore while Northern Fur-seals frolicked in the surf.

Andy Bunting, Martin Kennewell and I - Fairly happy with the birding to date

Harlequin Duck - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (1st winter) - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (2nd winter birds) - St Paul Island

Red-legged Kittiwake - St. Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (2nd winter) - St Paul Island

Grey-crowned Rosy-finch

Map of St. Paul Island. Salt Lagoon is in the south at the base of the peninsula, Reef Cliffs to the south, Ridge Wall to on the south coast to the east of Salt Lagoon, the main town is just to the south of Salt Lagoon. The island is 7.66 miles east to west and 13.5 miles from the north-east to the southern most point. The highest point is Rush Hill at 203m. It is the largest of the Pribilof Islands and has a population of 532 people. A Wikipedia article can be viewed here.

We stopped at a small rocky beach on the way back for lunch where around 100 Harlequin Duck were off shore although these showed better they were still a little distant for photography and were incredibly wary. But the stars of the show here were the hundreds of Least Auklet that were breeding amongst the boulders on the beach, we had a very enjoyable hour or so sat on the beach watching these birds come and go, socialise and create mischief.

Harlequin Duck - St. Paul Island

Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Snow Bunting - St Paul Island

After lunch we headed north up the island stopping at Salt Lagoon for some confiding Red-necked Phalarope. We then birded an area of marsh in the north-east of the island where Wood Sandpiper, Barn Swallow and a fairly showy Least Sandpiper were the highlights.

Red-necked Phalarope - St Paul Island

Lupin, a common species on St Paul

I initially took this to be a Primula species but now think it to be a

Stellaria or something similar

Red-necked Phalarope on the Salt Lagoon

Least Sandpiper - St Paul Island

We heard that the Ancient Murrelet had been seen at Town Bay so made a dash down the island and scanned the bay from the seal blind on the east shore picking up Red-breasted Merganser, Red-necked Grebe, White-winged Scoter and White-billed Diver but no Ancient Murrelet. There were around 20 Fur Seal on the beach below the blind, quite vulgar animals, and a scraggy Arctic Fox sniffed around their poo - lovely. After around an hour of scanning the bay with no luck we spent a further hour or so on Reef Cliff enjoying the auks although numbers were much lower than yesterday we enjoyed some fine views of Parakeet Auklet. Finally, news broke of a Cackling Goose near to the King Eider Hotel so we headed off to look at this, the bird was very wary and flew some distance as we got out of the car even though at this stage the bird was at least 200m away - I guess they are hunted here and so are wary of humans.