Temminck's stint, Pennington Flash

I arrived at the flash at 5:15am today in the hope that there might be a decent wader or two on the spit. Barry was there when I arrived and he told me that he'd just had a small wader but wasn't sure what it was and he hadn't been able to relocate it. However, within five minutes I had found a Temminck's stint right on the very end of the spit, as well as a dunlin and common sandpiper. We watched the stint for a while, noting its small size, the speckled appearance of its upperparts and its yellow legs, before I headed off home at about 6:45am.

An hour later, Bill messaged me to tell me that he was on the south side and watching the stint halfway down the spit. I decided to head back to the flash just in case the bird kept walking and eventually arrived on the scrape right in front of Horrock's. Unfortunately we couldn't see the bird from Horrock's, so we decided to head for the ruck where we would be able to see more of the end of the spit, although the light would be against us. Fortunately we decided to go via Ramsdales.

We refound the Temminck's stint on the right island in Rammies and showing really well. It was occasionally chased by lapwings or little ringed plover, but it kept returning to more or less exactly the same spot. 

It's a really smart little bird and five years to the day since the last Temminck's stint at the flash was found. I've had about 15 sightings of the species in the UK and all have been in the period 12th - 30th May.

It's easy to forget how small these stints are, we're looking at a bird which is the same size as a house sparrow. To pick it up on the end of the spit from Horrock's hide and see the identification features is a major challenge! It was considerably closer when it was in Ramsdales and in this photo you can clearly see the main identification features, i.e. yellow legs, tail protruding beyond the wing-tips, and the thing that really stood out when I first saw it at distance on the spit, the black centred feathers on the upperparts producing a speckled effect.

The video is much better than any of the photos.

Being bullied by a little ringed plover.