31/08/2016 Pectoral Sandpiper at Blue House Farm in Essex

Wednesday 31 August 2016
Blue House Farm EWT

I have shown quite an interest in the Essex sites lately, believing that they are very much going under the radar.  So today, with a pectoral sandpiper to "twitch" I took my chance to visit Blue House Farm for the first time.  

When I arrived several birders were heading back to the car park and they all had the same message - " the pectoral sandpiper had been showing off and on from hide 1 but it, along with all the other birds, had been spooked by a hobby and scattered."

• From hide 1 there were plenty of lapwings and a couple of little ringed plovers but little else.  A little while later a ruff re-appeared and a couple of yellow wagtails flew in but there was no sign of the returning sandpipers or the other ruffs.

I agreed with fellow birders Frankie and Prash to walk to the other 2 hides nearby, check them out and get back to them by phone if I found the target bird.

• From the second hide I found 2 green sandpipers and when they eventually flew off in the direction of hide 1 so I moved on to hide 3. 

 On the way I met another birder who was returning from hide 3 and from the photographs he showed me it was obvious that one of them was a real prospect for the pectoral sandpiper.  

• At hide 3 there was lots of activity and bingo!  There in the middle the action was the pectoral sandpiper feeding with the 5 ruffs, lapwings, mallards and black-headed gulls.  From 25-30 metres the views were superb, enabling me to be sure of the key ID features.  A quick telephone call brought Frankie and Prash from hide 1 to view this rare vagrant.

pectoral sandpiper
courtesy of Prash

Addition to BUBO 2016 UK Year List:
Pectoral Sandpiper   (0237)

A really interesting new site for me!

• They're scarce passage migrants from America and Siberia. A few are seen in spring, but the vast majority appear in late summer and autumn. 

•  It is the most common North American wading bird to occur here and has even started to breed in Scotland very recently.

• The brown breastband (which gives the species its name) and white belly are its most distinctive features.