31/07/20`5 Little Stint and Wood Sandpiper at Dungeness>

Friday 31st July 2015
RSPB Dungeness

I returned to Dungeness to "twitch" a Little Stint and a Wood Sandpiper just as the England cricket team were winning the third test at Edgbaston this afternoon.  In glorious sunshine I responded to a cue from Rare Bird Alert reporting a sighting of these 2 species.

• At ARC Hanson I soon found the Little Stint on one of the islands, to the right of the tower from the hide.  It was then a pleasure to watch this tiny bird go about its business.




Little Stint
Library picture

• Also present was a lovely female Ruff and 3 Black-tailed Godwits.

• I looked high and low for the Wood Sandpiper but couldn't find it. I was then in two minds as to whether I should go round to the Screen Hide or to look for it on the main reserve.  Taking the advice of Tony Greenland, who I had just met at the hide, I went on to the reserve.

• At Firth Hide my efforts were rewarded when the bird appeared some 40 metres to my left, on a small island. For a short while I doubted whether it was the Wood Sandpiper but just then Plodding Birder arrived and looked through my scope and confirmed my sighting.

Wood Sandpiper
Library picture

Another fine Dungeness visit with 2 year ticks, lots of birds to see and less than a handful of people around.  Nice to meet up with Plodding Birder and one of his associates Tony Greenland.




Additions to BUBO UK 2015 Bird List:
Little Stint   (234)
Wood Sandpiper   (235)

• The little stint is a tiny wading bird with a short straight fine black bill and medium-length black legs. It is brownish-grey above (grey in winter) and it is very white underneath. Autumn birds have two pale stripes or 'braces' down the back. It does not breed in the UK, but is a passage migrant, with most birds being juveniles seen in autumn. It is much scarcer in spring, when small numbers of adults are seen, and a very few birds spend the winter here, most migrating to Africa. Often seen with feeding dunlin.

• The wood sandpiper is a medium-sized wading bird, with a fine straight bill, yellowish legs and a conspicuous long white stripe from the bill over the eye to the back of the neck. In flight, it shows no wing-stripes and a square white rump. A passage migrant in spring and autumn, breeding in Northern Europe and wintering in Africa; a few pairs breed in the Scottish Highlands. The flooding of some previously drained traditional marshes in Scotland may help this species in future.