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A chestnut plumaged stint at Manly SEQ

To: Birding Aus <>
Subject: A chestnut plumaged stint at Manly SEQ
From: L&L Knight <>
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 18:31:41 +1000
I came across an interesting stint in amongst a flock of Red Necked Stints at the Manly wader roost yesterday - I got one reasonable shot before managing to flush the birds. I went back this morning for another go, and managed to find the bird again [finding a stint is not as easy as finding a larger bird].

The bird. Unlike the bulk of the rest of the RNS, which are in their drab grey summer uniforms, this bird's wings and crown had a fair bit of chestnut and dark brown - a bit like a breeding Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. It had a mostly white face and throat, with a chestnut breast band [with a bit of dark brown freckling]. The colour seems to be browner than the "sunburnt" red I've seen on RNS in April/May. The other interesting thing was its very white and broad supercilium [eye brow] which broadened out behind the eye. The bird may be a late moulter, or it may be in a reverse breeding plumage.

Statistically, the odds are that it is an unusual RNS. I've put a couple of pix on BirdForum to see if the northern hemisphere people have any comments - see http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=114 .

Since I managed to find the bird on consecutive days, it seems to be hanging about. Wader watchers who are visiting the Manly wader roost with their scopes may like to keep an eye out for it (both times I saw it, it was close to the water in the proximity of the section separating the two water bodies - ie it was washing in the fresh water pond today, and beside a "grass" patch near the tidal pond yesterday). It never pays to read too much into wader plumage, but this bird may prove interesting.

Regards, Laurie.

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