A County First!

 Sitting at the computer in our small bedroom on Wednesday lunchtime last week, it was a busy work day. There were so many emails and calls that I rarely came up for air, so I hadn't checked my WhatsApp messages for a while when I finally picked the phone up. 

A short message seemed a bit confused followed with equally confused responses about a Lesser / Mongolian / Tibetan/ Siberian Sand Plover on the stony beach at Lynemouth with Ringed Plovers. Any of those would be a British tick for me and new for Northumberland but these had been followed with a single photo, that to me, initially, showed a longer bill, that would indicate Great Sand Plover. Not a new bird for me, but a County First all the same.

Now, had I been in the office, I would have been 10 minutes away, but from home its 40 mins and the bird had flown south.

Still the work came through apace so my intended early 3pm finish dragged on til after 5pm. 

By then the bird, now reidentified as a Greater Sand Plover had been relocated around the next headland at Beacon Point, Newbiggin, a pattern it would repeat going forward.

Visions of a lot of birders and toggers booting the plover up and down the coast made me decide not to go on Wednesday evening but just leave it, keeping my fingers crossed for the Thursday when I would be based just around the corner in Ashington. Hopefully it would linger, it is 'autumn' after all...

Thursday, early doors I see from my phone that the Greater Sand Plover was still present  but has again flown from its roost on Lynemouth beach towards Beacon Point again where it was being looked for. 

That would be my first port of call. The car was left on a nearby housing estate as near as possible to the site where a short march across the golf course put me with a group of a dozen or so hopefuls.

Soon enough, the bird was found on the rocky shore where it would do a pop up act by appearing then vanishing in equal measure. I gave it half an hour and decided to have a better look at high tide after work.

4pm found me at Lynemouth Power Station where a walk of about half a mile over a brownfield area got me to the blast beach where the birds were roosting. The industrial landscape here is more like Teesside than Northumberland but its a good spot for migrants and other wildlife too. 

At the spot there were only about 6 of us at the beginning and by the time I left I was alone. I was able to watch the bird well and at a nice distance, enough to stop them being anxious and close enough for good scope views. A few notes and sketches were made and some phone scoped photos taken as a record of the bird. 

Later on at home a scan of some literature showed a minefield of taxonomic issues with the Sand Plover complex but comparing my notes with details it looked to be of the Central Asian race 'scythicus' all the way from Turkmenistan through S Kazakhstan and Afghanistan wintering in SE Africa

An older paper in BB refers to the 'crassirostris' race ( now changed in name only to 'scythicus' )...

 Bill - As nominate, but on average somewhat longer and thinner.   ( It was slim and quite long)

Upperparts - Paler grey-brown, usually lacking rufous-cinnamon tinge, but may show narrow rufous feather margins. (It was heavily abraded so no rufous finging)

Face Mask - Wider and complete, with white forehead patch small or absent .( It was only a few small dots in a line)

 Breast Band -  Broader, less sharply demarcated and generally paler, but with narrow centre  and rufous often extending obscurely to flanks .

Border to Breast Band - Sometimes present as thin black line; often absent.  ( It had a faint black line along the edge to the throat).

So there you have it, my 2nd UK GSP after one at Aberlady in June 1999, takes my county list to 364 until the Redpolls go!

Note - 30/07/24 I see Bird Guides are putting this out as the Eastern race 'leschenaultii' so I've looked again to see where I'm going wrong. Ive coloured positives in green and negatives in red.

Bill - Strong, with curved nail and obvious, angled gonys ( Bill didnt seem strong or have a gonys?)

Upperparts - Usually ‘clean’ grey-brown, often lacking cinnamon tinge, and thus similar to Lesser Sand Plover, but may show narrow rufous margins. ( Yes like this)

Mask - Variable, but occasionally fully black ( Fits)

Breast Band - Narrow at centre and deeper rufous, hardly extending to lower breast or onto flanks; also more sharply demarcated ( Doesnt look sharply demarcated to me or particularly deeper rufous)

Border to breast band - Normally lacking ( Definitely had a fine line bordering)

As with all of these complex species, the descriptions or parts are fluid and extremely variable. No doubt the BirdGuides Team have access to more expert up to date info than myself...Every day is a school day!

Nocmig Confusion

What a summer. After a couple of weeks laid up with the lurgy that I thought might have been 'the Covid', I think it was just one of them summer colds. I've still got a heavy chest.  What with that and the relentless poor weather I've struggled to find much to write about. Even my notebook is a bit thin but here goes the update so far.

26th June, thick fog decended. That puts the kybosh on most things but on this occasion a few Sandwich and Arctic Terns flew over our house quite low calling as they lose sight of the actual coast.  

A poor juvenile Song Thrush made a bang as it crashed into the kitchen window unfortunately. I decided to draw it, life sized...

Song Thrush a window casualty.

Friday 28th June, on my way to work a surprise Red Kite very low above the road at Red Row was nice. It was so low it became at risk of being another casualty but luckily it dodged the bullet so to speak...Kites may well be the new Black headed Gulls around the rest of the UK but in this black spot they are still very much noteworthy.

On Saturday 29th June at midnight there was a bit of a mystery unfolding.

I was out for Peggy's late night stroll. It was calm and still when I heard a totally unfamiliar call over towards the coast. It called once, then a gap, called a second time then another gap, then called a third time as it made its way south. Given the three clear sounds I was able to memorise the info long enough ( minutes) until I got in and added the details to the notebook before I could forget.

Then I put a tweet out to those who like to record nocturnal migrants overhead at night - Nocmig. They are more practised at this specialist field than me. From what I could tell, this was a wader, sounds like a small calidrid type on the move. Soon two replies came with Temmincks Stint? 

This is s scarce migrant of muddy edged pools so cant imagine one over here but I went straight online to Xeno Canto and checked the call there. It sounded good and I passed thanks to the responders.

I still was a bit unsure. As a Nocmig sceptic as you might have seen here I always wonder what else it may have been. You cant see it, so its always a long shot for these unfamiliar migration sounds. This kept me thinking about the so called Temmincks overhead in the night. Its not impossible but lets face it, it is unlikely.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I am speaking to my neighbour, published bird sound recordist and all round expert in avian audibles, Geoff Sample, when I recount the tale. Straight away he says what about Curlew Sandpiper? 

I have heard them calling before but didn't remember 'my' call. Time for another check on Xeno Canto. Well I never, Geoff was spot on. Similar to Temmincks but as my note says, drier and more distinct. At that time there were a couple of Curlew Sandpipers down the coast so they were certainly out there. A much more likely fit than the stint. Interesting isnt it....

Have a listen to this link - Xeno Canto Curlew Sandpiper Flight Call try the 8th one down the list by Stanislas Wroza 22 seconds Mongolia its the clearest without the background noise. Most like my bird.

To compare try the Temmincks Stint calls here too.

Oh and as I actually heard it and didn't just hear a recording of it, it was a patch tick too!

 

The adult Curlew Sandpiper taken a few years ago has the reddish belly in this pic with a juv Curlew Sand to its right and some Dunlin.