The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Summer SPOTTED SANDPIPER at Whisby NP showing well on the gull/tern islands, north east corner Thorpe Lake RIGHT NOW!

Grahame

Thanks Grahame for getting the news out so quickly!

This bird is in PERFECT plumage, well worth a visit. Hope it sticks, so I can return with my scope tomorrow!

Andrew

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

A cracking find!! I could feel your excitment from the post Grahame Did you find the bird? hopefully it sticks around utnill monday I doubt it though

Could possibly get a few twitchers on there way home from the Greater sand plover twitch?

Anthony

Thanks for posting so promptly Grahame.

A cracking bird

Hugh

It was good to have a decent bird whilst at work for a change! To answer Anthony's query the Spot Sand was found by Kevin Marshall and identified by me. Still present until 5.30pm when I left Whisby and around 100 birders connected with this bird today. The fifth record for Lincs? (GPC might like to confirm this!)

For those who might want to know, tonight the gates to the car park will be locked at 9.00pm and will re-open at 6.00am tomorrow morning. It is possible to sensibly park in Thorpe-on-the-Hill village and walk to Whisby which takes only a few mins when the car park is locked.

Cheers

Grahame

Brilliant spot by Kevin and you Grahame - lovely bird and I look forward to seeing the posts in the album later today - and I as I said to many observer present the first good bird in Lincs this year that cost me less than a gallon of petrol
3 miles from home yes yes yes

Superb well-marked bird much appreciated by all!

Well done to the finder and thanks Grahame for getting the news out quickly.

Regards,
Roy

A coincidence you might have spotted anyway.........from Spotted Flycatcher at Fulletby (Tue 14 June) to Spotted Sandpiper at Whisby (Fri 17 June) in 3 short days - both thanks to Mark Bibby.

I arrived at the Whisby stakeout at 5.30 pm but 'the bird had flown (left)' 5 minutes earlier from the islands area near the Visitor Centre. It was relocated by Mark B. at c 6.35 and was in view for some 5 minutes or so on the more distant small headland to the right of the Sand Martin colony. Good 'scope views.....thanks again again, Mark.

Freddy

I would love to take credit for relocating the bird Freddy but I only picked it up when a message was relayed down the track to us. It was relocated by someone else after it went missing for nearly an hour.

Shame it flew from the near island before everyone arrived as it was stunning when fairly close

Thanks for putting the news out for us all to enjoy.

Mark

We won't let the facts stand in the way of a good story, Mark, for if you hadn't passed the info on to me , I would never have seen the Spot Sand.

Freddy

Past Lincolnshire records are as follows:

Wisbech Sewage Farm Nov 9th-December 19th 1970 Brit. Birds 65: 350
Wisbech Sewage Farm June 13th, July 29th, Aug 30th 1971 Brit. Birds 65: 332
Holbeach Marsh, adult, 15th to 28th August 1999
Messingham Sand Quarries adult summer May 31st 2007

This year the following have been reported in Britain -- suggesting that all records may have involved the same bird
A brief look at the photos on Birdguides suggest that the Bucks and Lancs bird has less spotting than the Whisby bird but I have not done a side by side comparison of shots --

Brockholes NR Lancs May 30th
Caldecotte Lake Bucks May 12th
Westwood Pool Worcs May 3rd

Something that did strike me as a little odd on the Whisby bird is that the secondaries look to be quite fresh while the primaries and primary and median coverts look quite worn and faded; as they have a complete winter moult and only 2cy birds may retain some juvenile coverts and secondaries this seems a little strange
The Whisby bird did sing briefly late afternoon when flying around the island so that may suggest that it is a male? Interestingly in the Lives of North American Birds it states that a female acts very much like a phalarope or Dotterel and may mate with up to 5 different males in a year and lay five clutches leaving the males to incubate and rear the young something I had not appreciated
A very nice bird but going which way north and late or south and early? presumably the latter -- now where is that Mongolian Plover?

and on the subject of rare waders what has happened to Kentish Plover? these are my records of the species in Lincs note the month of most occurrences -- time to get looking

North Killingholme female May 29th 1977
Saltfleetby female June 15th 1980
Saltfleetby male July 5th 1981
North Killingholme male June 6th 1982
Barton-Read's Island iw male December 24-April 1st 1989-1990
Rimac female June 6th 1996

no comments?, no discussion?, no interest?
strange the way birding has gone

I considered your comments regarding the darker secondaries on this bird but not having the same access as yourself to a nice enlarged photo of the flight feathers I am unable to clearly see feather age and thus cannot really comment. Unlikely that primaries have been moulted and not secondaries. My experience from loads of Spotted Sands seen in Peru every year is that the secondaries normally appear darker than the primaries - but I must own up to not giving them sufficient attention - however I shall do so this year.

patience graham your postings contain so much info that very careful study is required ( long may they continue ), i am same as ed when your abroad i also have been guilty of the lack of detail study of not an uncommon species, time is limited on a trip. i remember a few years ago spot sand hybridising with comm sand and then seeing a couple of years later a spot sand that just didnt look right but couldn,t put my finger on why, not having excellent photos to study at leisure, still thinking

terry whalin

well i have had a good think, hmm its like this, once again it proves that there is no such thing as a typical bird just like humans they all differ if you look hard enough and long enough. i mean how many species are there that we struggle to separate sexes. then you get to such detail of sub species interbreeding etc ( redpolls ) some obvious some not, some not sure, the whole area is a true minefield and not just visually !! what about calls some copy calls of just about anything and everything ( great tit lyre bird etc ) regional differences even. so when you get long distance migratory species not often seen here they receive more attention to detail than the cursory glance given to dunnock lets say. how many have given a dunnock a good grilling and be amazed at the beautiful detail and delicate fringing ? stunning. its the same in nature supposedly no 2 tigers have the same pattern and the same with zebra so we could be seeing nature at work, diversification to establish which variance has the best chance of survival.
still thinking

terry whalin