Help with ID please

[Duncan McCaskill <>]

I have some birds in my GBS site that I am having trouble identifying. I'm pretty sure they are some kind of Sandpiper - they are about the right size, brownish patterning uppermost, hint of white marking on the wings, long bill, small pointed wings, rapid wing beats. I haven't managed to get a good look at them, I've only seen them as they fly away when flushed from cover.  The books have the most likely Sandpiper in this part of the world as the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, but the call I've heard doesn't match the call described in the books - but written descriptions of calls are always hard to interpret. Simpson & Day describe the Sharp-tailed call as 'wit wit wit-it-it', which doesn't sound like the calls I heard. I'd describe the calls I've heard as  a high-pitched "breeep" or "cheeep" (the stereotypical call of a "bird"). The pitch is somewhere between a Galah & a Red-Rumped Parrot (sorry, not very helpful, they were just the two calls I could here at the same time).

My "garden" site is on Ginninderra Creek, just downstream from Giralang Pond. The birds were flushed from the long grass on the creek banks and the reed beds, which seemed surprising for a kind of bird I usually associate with coastal mudflats.

I'm not very familiar with Sandpipers or their calls - I haven't seen the ones at Jerrabomberra Wetlands.

I first heard them on Saturday without having any idea what they they were. I saw them this morning and again in the afternoon (Sunday). There are about 5 of them.

Any ideas? Is there anything else that looks a bit like a Sandpiper that they could be?

Duncan.