Rumping up towards spring

White-rumped Sandpiper

A very unseasonable vagrant White-rumped Sandpiper was found towards the end of last week at Slimbridge WWT. As I don’t need it for my UK list I decided to avoid the weekend crowds and go and see it on Monday if it was still there.

Slimbridge are always very well organised when it comes to rare bird twitches, they did a superb job allowing everyone to see a mega rare Little Bustard there a few years back, and the normal early limited site access to members was extended to the Discovery hide on the South Lake where the Sandpiper was spending most of its time.

It’s only an easy 40 minute motorway drive to Slimbridge from home and I arrived spot on the members opening time of 08:15. I had my members card checked at the back entrance, I don’t recall this happening before but apparently non-members had been sneaking in for free over the weekend.

The Sandpiper had been spending most of its time on the South Lake with occasional excursions to the Rushy pen. The Rushy pen is brilliant for photography, the sun is generally behind the hide and the close viewing conditions are superb. Unfortunately, the Discovery hide on the South Lake is the opposite with the sun directly in your face for large parts of the day making for difficult viewing and photography if the sun is out.

I was told that the Sandpiper was showing from the Discovery hide so quickly made my way there. There were only 5 or so people in the hide so it was easy to get a good viewing spot and a volunteer immediately got me onto the bird.

The White-rumped Sandpiper, (Calidris fuscicollis), is afforded a one star rarity rating in the Colins bird bible equating to up to ten records per year. It is a Nearctic long distance migrant. After breeding in northern Canada and Alaska, it flies over the Atlantic Ocean to spend the majority of its non-breeding period in South America, particularly along the Patagonian coast, in Chile and Argentina. Most UK records occur during the migration period when they are blown across the Atlantic by strong storms. It is hence highly likely that this bird has been unseen in the UK since the autumn, perhaps lost in the large flocks of Dunlin along the Severn estuary.

It showed well for 15 minutes or so close to the Discovery hide and then flew to the back of the South Lake to join a flock of feeding Dunlin from whom it is said to be hard to distinguish. I had read up on its distinguishing features prior to my visit and seeing it in the same scope view as the Dunlin was very instructive. To my eyes it was noticeably different being somewhat smaller overall with a smaller and slightly down turned bill. Its profile was much flatter and elongated compared to the rather plump Dunlin. It terms of its plumage, its most distinguishing feature, apart from the rump, which was only seen in flight, was its long primaries which extended much further than the Dunlin’s to behind its tail. The only other smaller wader which such long primaries that I’m aware we might encounter in the UK is the rare north American vagrant, the Baird’s Sandpiper.

White-rumped Sandpiper

The light in the discovery hide was, to put it mildly, dire, very flat and gloomy but a certain amount of post processing raised the photos to a vaguely acceptable level. With the Sandpiper right at the back of the South Lake ,and seemingly settled with its Dunlin cousins, I decided to decamp to the Rushy hide in the hope it would relocate there. There were a few other birders and photographers in the hide when I got there and, indeed, the Sandpiper flew in briefly but somewhat distantly for a short visit just before mid-day. I hoped it would make its way closer to the hide along the margin but something spooked it while it was still distant and it flew off back in the direction of the South Lake. At this point I decided to retire to the restaurant for a bowl of soup. Some 30 minutes later I returned to the Rushy hide and discovered that, in my absence, the Sandpiper had come back for 10 minutes and fed very close to the hide! Oh well you can’t win them all! Birding is a game of swings and roundabouts but over time, and with due patience, these things seem to even themselves out.

A better picture of a White-rumped Sandpiper in summer plumage taken a few years back at Frampton

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Rushy hide hoping for a repeat performance but it was not to be. Some consolation came in views of a first winter Scaup which, since my last visit, had moulted into adult summer plumage. Godwits and Redshanks also came close providing good photo opportunities to while away the time. Come 16:00 more and more wildfowl flew in in anticipation of the winter feeding program. I decided that the Sandpiper was highly unlikely to come back to the Rushy now and so made my way back to the car for the short drive home.