Baird's Sandpiper - 2012 sighting

West Angle Beach           20^th to 25^th August 2012

 As I pulled into the car park at West Angle, I noticed a single small Dunlin-type wader in the middle of the beach.  On checking the bird with my binoculars, the wader appeared to be very long-winged – with the wings extending well beyond the end of the tail.  My initial instinct was that the bird was a Baird’s Sandpiper, but better views were required to rule out the possibility of a White-rumped Sandpiper.  On this basis, I picked up my camera and tentatively approached the bird to get better views and hopefully a record pic of the bird.  The tide was high at the time, so there was only a narrow band of sand at the top of the beach and the bird was looking a little uneasy due to the presence of several dog walkers.  Although alone, with no birds present for size comparison, I had the impression that the bird was the size of a small Dunlin. The bill was black and slightly down-curved, and appeared somewhere between Little Stint and Dunlin in size.

Upperparts:  Generally pale brown head and neck with fine dark streaking on crown.  Dark lores, and pale creamy supercillia, on occasions looking very faint, meeting in front of eyes to form a pale patch above bill.  Cheeks and ear coverts a pale but warm brown colour.  Mantle feathers black with clean white borders; scapulars, lesser coverts, median coverts and greater coverts all with dark/black feather centres and primarily white (though sometimes chestnut) borders.  Tertials and primaries black with thin white/chestnut borders, with primaries extending well beyond the end of the tail.

Seen in flight only once, when the wings showed only the faintest of wing-bars, and that appeared a slightly paler brown than the rest of the wing.  No white rump was present, the rump and mantle appeared a uniformly brown colour when the bird was in flight.  Tail was dark in the centre with paler edges.

Underparts:  Throat white.  Neatly demarcated pectoral band of dark chevrons on a pale buff/brown background.  Otherwise, clean white lower breast, belly, flanks and undertail coverts.

Legs: short and black.     Call: a short quiet trill that I heard as ‘prrrp’.

 Photo (c) Clive Hurford

Clive Hurford

Feb 2014

Update on Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 7:40PM by Pembrokeshire Avifauna committee

It stayed on the same beach until the 26th August and was seen by many observers

Graham Rees