Rediscovering the Joys of Birding
• Thursday, May 15, 2008 - Temminck's Stint on the Meadow
It's been a fantastic week for birding. I was so excited to find the wood sandpiper earlier on in the week, then yesterday I managed to twitch the red-footed falcon (not a particularly great achievement I know but I enjoyed it) and then to cap it all this morning there's a Temminck's Stint on the Meadow.
I went down to the Meadow to see if the wood sandpiper was still there. The weather was lousy and it soon started to rain quite hard. The Meadow though was looking great from a bird point of view with plenty of water still from the floods and some really great mud being exposed. On the floods I soon spotted a couple of ringed plover on the far bank but when I looked closely there was a third smaller bird next to it. It looked stint-like and yet had a rather plain back. It was standing right next to the plovers and one could see it's tiny size in comparison. At that moment the three birds were spooked and flew up suddenly so that I caught a glimpse of it's tail: it had the white edges going all the way down to the end of the tail. At this point I started to get excited as I knew that this was significant but couldn't remember whether than meant Temminck's or Little Stint. I thought that I might have lost it at this point so scanned the rest of the shore-line. I soon came across the wood sandpiper which was still happily wading and bobbing away but no sign of the other birds.
I was getting increasingly wet in the rain but thought I'd give the end of the shore another scan. I quickly picked up the ringed plover again though now there appeared to be three of them. Next to them I then find a dunlin. Could I have been confusing my stint with a dunlin? I had been sure of the size differential compared to the plovers and the dunlin was more or less comparable in size. I was starting to have doubts but then I find the stint again and it's obviously smaller than the other birds. I get a good look at the back which is rather plain and I'm becoming more certain all the time that it's a Temminck's. However I look at my watch and realise that I need to get back to take my daughter to school so I give a quick call to a local fellow birder telling him what I found. Fortunately he's in and can come down to the Meadow so I leave him instructions as to where it is and head back home. About half an hour later he calls me back to confirm the ID - he is much more experienced than I am and has a much better scope and manages to see the leg colour so with this endorsement I'm confident that it is in fact a Temminck's Stint.
There have been quite a few Temminck's Stint around over the last few days: Rainham Marshes have had three and at Little Marlow GP's in Bucks there's been one for the last couple of days so they are definitely on the move at present. In fact I had been contemplating a twitch over to Little Marlow but this find had saved me the trip. It's strange because the same thing had happened with the wood sandpiper: I'd been contemplating going down to the Greenham Common area where there'd been a couple of wood sandpiper and had even asked a local birder down there for directions when one turned up on the Meadow. I suppose that what's happening is that there's been a movement of these birds so I see the postings on Bird Guides and start thinking about trying to find one and then they turn up on the Meadow but it does seem rather spooky that when I contemplate trying to find a bird lo and behold it turns up on the Meadow. Perhaps I should contemplate trying to find some mega rarity to see if I can manifest it!
Anyway, yet another year and life tick. It's been four Lifers in a row now so it's a really exciting birding time at present.
166: Temminck's Stint (LIFER) |
Post A Comment! :: Send to a Friend!
|
|
|
|
|
• Thursday, May 15, 2008 - Temminck's Stint