Waders and the British List 

As you know, I have a great intersest in waders and Frampton. I went there recently to see a Baird's Sandpiper, which rewarded me by being asleep most of the time. Got some photos of its back though! My Frampton wader list is currently 44, the reserve's is 50, and this was my second Baird's there. Driving there and back I was thinking about the status of species on the British List.

WARNING-THIS BLOG MAY CAUSE DISTRESS TO THOSE OF A TWITCHING DISPOSITION WHO HAVEN'T BEEN DOING IT LONG. 

 There are currently 79 waders on Category A of the British List. I have seen them all, but three only abroad. Caspian Plover only in Kazakhstan, and Mongolian Plover and Wilson's Snipe in several foreign locations. The splits haven't helped there, as I only ever went for one Lesser Sand-plover, which is (was?) Tibetan, and Wilson's Snipe has only ever been confirmed on Scilly. Not that I haven't tried, in 1988 I twitched a one day spring adult Caspian Plover on Scilly, not only was it the wrong day, but I knew the finder personally! Ouch.  I wasn't the only one, the Scillonian was fully booked. Next up was a barely-twitchable bird at Musselburgh which flew off just after dawn, never to be seen again, whilst I was watching a Bee-eater in Suffolk. Moral-always look at pager before going to sleep, and first thing on waking up. The next bird was a fairly long-stayer, on Shetland, but it did move around a bit, and once held the record for the most expensive twitch ever, by someone who returned from dipping it and went straight back again. He saw it, but the figure of £1000 was mentioned. Another friend of mine had a photo of that bird published in Birding World, he wasn't a big twitcher but just happened to be on holiday there. (Well done, Reston!). I had stopped twitching Shetland by then, so am just hoping that one day... It won't be a group of three spring males like I saw in KZ though!

Whilst most waders turn up fairly regularly, increasingly so in many cases such as White-rumped Sand, Lesser Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitcher, there are still several which can be difficult to catch up with. Hudsonian Godwit, which I spoke of in my last blog, is still hiding among 4000 Godwits, and I meet more people that haven't seen one than have, but don't worry, I'm going to find one at Frampton one day! Sand-plovers are erratic, Mongolian probably the fewest number of records, but the big problem with twitching them is knowing what you're going for in the first place. The first Greater Sand-plover I saw had a notice pointing the way with Lesser /Greater repeatedly crossed out and changed. A joke yes, but I once drove to Musselburgh on the suggestion that a bird might be a Lesser, when it was obviously a Greater all day long! That's all part of the fun, what wasn't so funny was the misidentification of a bird at Pagham by a well-known twitcher that persuaded many people, myself included, not to go. It turned out to be a Lesser, and a Mongolian to boot! They will always be a difficult group, and seeing any these days is worth the trip.


 Of course the "rarest" wader on category A of the British List is also the most recent addition, Grey-headed Lapwing, so if you didn't go for that rest assured it will one day be in the same category as Little Whimbrel, currently the wader not recorded for the longest period of time, (forty years next year). I have to say as its current status is endangered, it is also the least likely repeat. However, Europe has seen the likes of Willet on more than one occasion, it's surely only a matter of time, although I seem to remember we've been saying that for years! There's not a lot else that is likely to turn up, American Oystercatcher tends not to have many extralimital records, possibly Wandering Tattler or Rock Sandpiper from the west coast (although I'm not sure I'd like to ID either!), and strangely, for a real long shot, Surfbird. There have been a few records of this bird in Florida, Texas and New Hampshire, and it is a long-distance migrant. There are no US species on the lists of the Azores or Cape Verde that haven't occurred in Britain, so it seems Willet may be our only hope  from the US. (?)

However, there is one wader which has been recorded in France, Cape Verde, and the UK. No UK records have been accepted, but I see no good reason why, and records are increasing on the continent. A seemingly wild bird has been in the Camargue this year, and they do breed as closely as Greece and Turkey, which are migratory populations. Oh-Spur-winged Lapwing, I nearly forgot to mention it!  Albeit unlikely, we could see an Oriental Plover one day, Finland and the Netherlands have, and it's roughly on a par with Grey-headed Lapwing in terms of Western Palearctic records.


 But back to older records. In early October 2021 I received a phone call from Mike Sidwell who said "you're going to Yorkshire tomorrow". I agreed, knowing there would be a good reason, although by the end of our chat I did know I would be going to see my longest-awaited wader-Long-toed Stint. There had been one a few years previously but it only showed very distantly and occasionally, and at the time the identification was doubtful, so I hadn't gone. I've been twice for birds that turned out not to be Long-toed Stints, but it's all OK now, although better photos would be nice. However, after Little Curlew, the next longest is now Grey-tailed Tattler. There are only two records, the first was suppressed, but the second was readily available for nearly a month if you could travel to Northern Scotland, and you were birding in 1994.  I spoke to a birder at another twitch who told me an anecdote which should be a lesson to all twitchers. He was involved so had no reason to lie. A crew from London eventually twitched the Tattler after it had been in the same area for a month. On arrival they met someone who assured them the bird was still present. Having driven overnight they decided to have some breakfast before going to see the ONLY twitchable one EVER in the UK. Those of us who did see it will remember that on its last day it was taken by a Sparrowhawk................


 

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