As I headed west dawn was on the way, a bright sky emerging in the rear view mirror. I was meeting Ian at Lower Pennington Lane, time to catch up and also hopefully see some interesting birds. It had been a while since we had been to the area of Pennington and Keyhaven, the last time the duck were very sparse. As I came along Lower Pennington Lane I could see the fields and marsh was flooded and covered in Canada Geese. Conditions bode well, but pulling into the car park there were several large vans. It was just dawn, and the presence of these vehicles could only mean wildfowling. As I got out of the car Ian confirmed this. It would mean the lagoons around Fishtail would probably be empty, we would just have to see.
We walked over the old tip, taking the Fishtail side. Scanning over the flooded marsh at the back we were pleasantly surprised to see good numbers of duck..The majority were Pintail and Teal, but there was also Shoveler and a few Wigeon. As we stood watching the duck a group of Long-tailed Tits pass through the scrub, several coming very close.
Geese, mainly Brent were moving from the water into the fields. This group coming in from the Solent.
The tide was rising, but still a long way off its high point. The waders in Butts Bay though, were already contesting suitable roosting sites.
They are mainly Knot with a few Dunlin and Turnstone. Further over on the salt marsh there were Grey Plover, Oystercatcher and a single Bar-tailed Godwit.
We walked towards the Jetty, there was little of major interest on Butts Lagoon, or Jetty. The clouds that obscured the sun rise were now breaking up and the sun was beginning to break through. The area around the jetty always provides some atmospheric scenes at sun rise in the winter.
We were hoping to find the Slavonian Grebe that had been reported in the week. Scanning the sea though produced a few Great-crested Grebes but no sign of the smaller cousin. I did though pick up a Great Northern Diver on the water that I just managed to get Ian onto before it flew up. We watched as it headed east towards Oxey Creek and we thought it might go down on the water there. It didn't but did fly around and then headed back west towards heading towards Hurst Spit. As it came by I was able to get a couple of record shots.
On the lagoon behind us there were several pairs of Wigeon. Its good to have them back, looking splendid in the autumnal sunshine.
We walked a little further, we found a Spotted Redshank on the far side, and a small group of Tufted Duck were interesting me. Ian then called that there was a Long-tailed Duck on the lagoon. It was an immature bird, looking quite pale and small in comparison with the wigeon and Tufted Duck.
At first it was preening and staying close to the far bank, then began to move a little closer to us.
Unlike the female the head is almost all greyish brown, in the female it is predominantly white with a dark patch behind the eye and on the crown.
The immatures and juveniles are more likely to turn up inland and on their own.
We walked on still scanning the sea for the Slavonian Grebe. We did manage to see three Common Scoter and a group of Eider, and distantly from Oxey Marsh were pairs of Red-breasted Merganser. At this point we didn't think for once the day would change completely.
As the sea wall turns in alongside Oxey Creek there is a lagoon that wraps around on the other side of the wall. Typically this is a good area for Spotted Redshank, but we could only find a Common Redshank. I could see a single wader belly deep in the water at the north end. It had all the making of a Dunlin, but the feeding technique was different, we did wonder at the time was it possibly a late Curlew Sandpiper. As we watched the wader I picked out a smaller wader that was walking in a manner very similar to a Sanderling on the far bank. The time was around 9:15 to 9:30am. It was very clockwork like in its movements and was pushing its beak rapidly like a sewing machine at the water's edge.
I called it to Ian as a Sanderling but very quickly realised that it wasn't the right colour, it was to dark, lacking any of the silvery grey colours you would see in a Sanderling at this time of year. What I could make out were dark legs, a supercilium and a relatively long beak. It made its way along the edge of the water, then catching me out it flew across the lagoon showing a feint white wing bar, but more importantly no white rump. It settled in the water a lot closer to us, feeding in the vicinity of the larger wader, and it was this close proximity that started to confuse us a little.
This bird was smaller by about a third similar in fact to a Little Stint, but we had discounted Little Stint on account of the bill and the supercilium. The Dunlin was still causing us to think a larger wader, so could the smaller one be a Dunlin? They both fed belly deep in the water, the debate was around Dunlin or Curlew Sandpiper, but the neck did not seem long enough, so if the larger one was a Dunlin, what is the smaller one. Here both were briefly out of the water.
In this light the primaries appear more brownish grey with pale edges, there is also a short primary projection, the scapulars showed a dark centre with pale edges. Consulting the Collins Guide, there should be anchor shapes but these were not obviously clear.
There was a darker "V" shape on the back as it turned, you can see it here.
I had discounted other possibilities, Little Stint, the size of the bill, it was thick and longer and the supercilium was straight with no split, White-rumped Sandpiper, it was small and there was definitely no white rump seen in flight. I was focusing on a Semipalmated Sandpiper, a bird I had seen once before but had misidentified as a Little Stint. I was though 100% certain this was not a Little Stint.
The sun then disappeared and bizarrely the conditions became much better for photography although the plumage now appeared more grey and uniform.
I put the sighting out on "Go Birding" as a possible Semipalmated Sandpiper and hoped someone as well as Ian would turn up to help clinch the identification. We continued to watch, and I continued to talk up Semipalmated. You could now see the dark patch around the ear coverts, but from all the photographs I looked at on Google and the pictures in the Collins Guide on my phone, it was the bill that concerned me most. In all the bill apears straight and thick. Here it was longish with a slight decurve. If I had read the Collins guide properly maybe I would have come across the part that says "beware some longer billed birds with a slight decurve"!
We took lots of photographs. Andy Tew turned up but he couldn't really help. There was no sign of anyone else. I did manage to digiscope a picture and I sent this out, but still no response.
We had now convinced ourselves it definitely was a Dunlin with it, and I would say I was 95% certain we were watching a Semipalmated Sandpiper.
When I got home and consulted the Helm Identification Guide and Shorebirds, I could see why I was a little uncertain. However one plate in Shorebirds shows the variation in bill type, which then satisfied me we had found a Semipalmated Sandpiper.
Some more photographs.
It clearly wasn't going a way and after about a couple of hours we decided to move on walking around to Normandy Marsh. There was a large roost of Dunlin on the islands, and as we arrived these were spooked and flew around before settling back on the islands.
There were four Greenshank on the lagoon and a small group of ten Ringed Plover with the Dunlin. Feeding in the typical frenzied dipping fashion was a single Spotted Redshank.
Offshore around the saltmarsh were lots of Wigeon and seven Avocet, but no sign of the Slavonian Grebe. Three Red-breasted Mergansers flew onto the marsh directly over our heads.
All the time we kept checking the spot on the other side of the creek to see if any other birder was looking at the wader.
We decided to walk back, and followed the sea wall once again. The Sandpiper had moved and was feeding further away in the lagoon to the left of where we had seen it. Another birder was there, but he was unable to help other than to say somebody else had seen it and thought it could be a Little Stint. It WASN'T a Little Stint.
The Spotted Redshank were about though, feeding together frantically ducking under the water.
We were making our way back to the car park when we passed another birder. As He left us he mentioned it has to be one or the other, and we asked what he meant, and he mentioned Western Sandpiper.
Back at the cars messages were coming from Bird Guides that it was being identified as a Western Sandpiper. Checking the Collins guide once again we were a little confused, but the bill would support Western, as for the body there was non of the rufous shown in the guide and definitely no white in the "V" on the back.
We decided to check out Fishtail and wait and see what happens, clearly there was a lot more debate to take place.
On Fishtail there was a good number of Pintail, always a great duck to see.
From Fishtail we walked around to Keyhaven, there were more reports of a Western Sandpiper and birders we being told to park at Keyhaven Car Park and walk!
Out on the marsh a very distant Peregrine sat on its usual post.
Other than Coot there was very little on Keyhaven, we turned and walked back, again a Pintail showed well on Fishtail.
We walked around to the Jetty, there was very little about and the tide was very high. We could see a gathering of birds on the sea wall at Oxey. The report of a Western Sandpiper was bringing them in, it would be a mega bird.
Time was moving on and it was getting quite gloomy although there were patches of blue sky as can be seen here reflected in the flooded Pennington Marsh. Out on the marsh were four distant Ruff.
As I drove home I pondered the identification of the sandpiper. It was difficult, a Semipalmated is a great bird to find, but only warrants a year tick, a Western now would delver Life, county and year. When I got home Bird Guides was now saying it was a Semipalmated Sandpiper, identified from photographs.
I pulled the books out. The bill still worried me and Ian and I exchanged Whatsapp messages. As I mentioned earlier it was the Shorebirds plate that finally clinched it for me, there was a picture of a SP bill that was just like our bird's.
The head pattern, the dark patch around the ear coverts all pointed to SP, the scapulars were similar, and I wonder if there would have been the debate if, like us, others had seen in sunlight? In the sun the bird looked a different colour, more brown than the grey in the afternoon.
Still it made for a different day, and for once Ian and I managed to find something really good. Regardless of a 100% identification we found what we knew was a rare bird and that can't be taken away. I had called it a possible Semipalmated and that was the bird I felt I needed telling it wasn't. The both of us were pretty made up
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