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After looking at a number of photos of Stilt
Sandpipers on the internet (there are many nice pics of this bird), in
books and in an American bird journal that I have, I can see that the bird we
saw appeared to be a Stilt Sandpiper in winter plumage. What make me go in
favour of the Stilt Sandpiper was:
1) the general plumage and colouration was much
like that of a winter plumaged Curlew Sandpiper with streaking on the
neck and breast, rather plain grey upper parts, but body size
appeared slightly longer, especially the neck when I saw it alert and
stretch upright a couple of times
2) the length and shape of the black bill
- matches perfectly with that of the Stilit Sandpiper photos (In about 30
photos I have checked of this bird and have seen before and after my
sighting). The size of the bill was atleast one and a half the length
of the head, straighter based and not as down curved and tapering as that
of the Curlew Sandpiper
3) the length of the tibia (upper leg)
certainly made the legs appear a third longer than that of a Curlew
Sandpiper and enabling myself to clearly see the whole of its feet and what
I would Imagine to be part of the tarsus (lower leg) extend beyond the tail
when it flew,
4) what appeared to be the lack of any
white wingbar
5) the definate white rump as in Curlew Sandpiper,
dark lores (line between eye and bill) and distinct supercilium
I saw this bird for no less than ten minutes and at
a distance of within 30 metres through 20 x scope in good light the first time I
saw the bird and when it flew, but much further away (50-100 metres)
the second time when I saw the bird briefly. On both instances I saw it as a
much taller bird (mainly because of its long legs) and different shaped bill
when compared with all the other Curlew Sandpipers it associated
with.
I knew beforehand the shape and size of a Stilt
Sandpiper but wanted to check a few more photographs of the bird before I was
certain.
What I did not see of this bird was yellow-green
legs as is normally typical of a winter plumage Stilt Sandpiper but a few of the
photographs I have seen of this bird (clear ones and digiscoped?) clearly show
more darker (brownish legs) like the bird we saw (not black as in Curlew
Sandpiper). From my experience with waders, leg colour can be hard to detect
inless you are much closer to the bird. Also given the habitat (mudflats) the
legs of this bird could easily have been covered with a bit of mud. I did not
take any notes but clearly remember what I had seen. My tactic is to get
familiar with all the possible rare waders (like Least, Semi-palmeated,
Western,Solitary and ofcourse Stilt Sandpiper) via looking at various
photos, reading the books etc, so that you can at least have more of an idea if
you stumble accross one of the rarities in the field and have found that
this has helped several times allowing speedy identification without a field
guide to start off with! I don't like being underprepared when It comes to
these potential birds.
Please feel free to criticise my sighting of the
Stilt Sandpiper but I can not think of it as being anything else but
it.
Best of luck to those who go looking for
it!
Edwin
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