Help with ID please

["Roger Curnow" <>]

Frank/Duncan

I have seen Latham Snipe both sides of Giralang Pond this "spring"; but only 
singley.
       roger curnow

- Original Message ----- 
From: <>
To: "Duncan McCaskill" <>; 
<>
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 11:34 PM
Subject: Help with ID please


> Have you eliminated Latham's Snipe?
>
> Regards
> Frank Antram
> -----Original message-----
> From: Duncan McCaskill 
> Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:49:54 +1000
> To: 
> Subject: [canberrabirds] Help with ID please
>
> > 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.
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