Sharp-tailed sandpiper, Blacktoft

Photo © Matthew Scarborough

I've seen thousands of sharp-tailed sandpipers in Australia, mainly at Werribee treatment works near Melbourne, Victoria. Yesterday a moulting adult was found by Alan Davies at Blackoft RSPB in Yorkshire, and since I was over that way today I decided to call in for a look. I arrived at 06:45 and made my way to the Singleton hide. I've since read Alan's write up on his blog regarding the discovery of the bird and my experience was actually very similar. 

On reaching the packed hide I found a nice selection of waders on show, including at least six curlew sandpipers, 20 spotted redshank, 50 dunlin and a few ruff. Then suddenly there it was. A smaller bird loosely hanging around with the ruff, yet not entirely comfortable with them, often keeping a good distance away and feeding alone. It also seemed quite active and jumpy and didn't stay still for long, and at one point flew onto a muddy island by itself. It was surprisingly ruff like yet lacked that species unique jizz and scaley upperparts, in fact the upperparts were more dunlin like with pale scapular lines. It still had a few arrow like markings on its flanks and a few streaks on its undertail coverts, but along with the reddish cap, these markings weren't so obvious in the poor light.

It was a good job that I did get there early because pretty soon after I arrived the bird disappeared and was not seen again all day. Sharp-tailed sandpiper joins an ever growing list of great waders that I have seen at Blacktoft, which includes Hudsonian godwit, red-necked stint and white-tailed plover! 

The light wasn't great, the hide was packed and the bird wouldn't stay still, so I struggled getting any photos, but fortunately Matthew Scarborough allowed me to use his photo here. 

A long awaited addition to my UK list which now stands at 441.