Another Saturday morning whizz round Abberton. First to Wigborough Bay, and despite the heat haze and distance I was able to pick up 4 juvenile Curlew Sandpipers and a juvenile Little Stint. The Curlew Sandpipers were distinctive both in shape and plumage and easy to pick out even at this range.
Then onto Layer Breton Causeway and three resting Red-Crested Pochard. As well as the usual Spoonbills and Egrets. There was no mention of the female Ring-Necked Duck so I started going through the ducks and found a suitable candidate asleep. Eventually it became clear this was the bird, and as if to confirm I took a photo on my phone down the telescope lens and when I did the ID thing it came up with Ring-Necked Duck!
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| Phone scoped Ring-Necked Duck, confirmed by Google! |
Next stop Weymouth and a stop at Ferrybridge. Still feeling the warm glow of guru-level ID master from my RND I scanned across the waders. A single Knot, a few Sanderlings, and lots and lots of Ringed Plover. There were quite a few Dunlin and in one group there was a slightly larger bird, but they do vary, Alpine races being a bit larger, and this was quite fluffed up. Furthermore it had the distinctive rich brown back colour of Dunlin, a plumage that ruled out Curlew Sandpiper as both the adults and the juveniles have distinct plumages. Go on, have a look in your guide book of choice, Hayman, Marchant, Prater, or Collins in my case. No overlap whatsoever.
So it was a bit of a surprise to see on Birdguides Curlew Sandpiper reported from Ferrybridge for the same day. I checked the Portland Bird Observatory sightings page and they even had a couple of photos of it. And it was clearly the bird I'd seen, in Dunlinesque plumage. And it clearly was a Curlew Sandpiper.
So, I'm back to novice level ID skills. Curlew Sandpipers don't have a plumage overlap with Dunlin, apart from the ones that do.
