Small Distant Waders

"These are small. Those are far away..."

Ahem.

Once upon a time I went twitching, like the filthy reprobate I so often am. I joined a fair-sized crowd of like-minded others, stood beside a road on a causeway with a culvert through it that someone with less understanding or perhaps just less space to use called a bridge. We were looking at waders, no small distance away. Chief among these was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, and very nice it was, too. I had the advantage of a straight scope with a zoom that stayed sharp up to 75x, so had no trouble at all getting comfortably identifiable views of said Sandpiper. Likewise of the assorted Snipe, Dunlin, and Lapwing in the near vicinity. There was also a smaller wader, zipping about among them - someone present said [in a fairly local accent] that it was a Little Stint.

This was as I first arrived, when the sun was still sort of out and there were bright colours to be appreciated. On the Sharp-tail and on the small wader. Yes, you read right. It was a juvenile Little Stint, with orangey bits and braces standing out nicely, and I thought, 'Hmm, nice' as I looked at it while the STS was hidden from my view behind a tree stump. Then the Sharp-tail came out, and the sun buggered off. The waders flushed, too. More than once. I spent a lot of time on or re-finding the STS, getting others on it and letting them look through my scope, and I assumed the little grey wader still knocking about was the Little Stint, after all, the STS looked so dark and drab now the light had changed, why wouldn't the Stint? And I didn't look particularly hard at it. In my defence, nobody else did either, "There's a Little Stint, too" was accepted by all in my earshot.

Fast-forward to this last weekend, and to a sharp-eyed [Famous Birder] some pretty good for the time photos show that that little grey wader wasn't a Little Stint but a clear Semi-palmated Sandpiper. "Shit.." said I. Ok, first I went "Yeah, right..." on hearing of this. Then I saw the pics, showing what was definitely the 'Little Stint in overcast weather with reflect-y water buggering the light up' that I had seen on the day. Then I said shit. And a few other things. Stupid stupid stupid... What happens when you don't state your assumptions? You forget them. The waders flushed, the Dunlin numbers changed every time they did, so why wouldn't other birds come and go, too? Dear, oh dear....

To everyone who I told that there was a Little Stint present, I apologise. But only a little, as you shouldn't have assumed I knew what the hell I was talking about.. ;)

And yes, that is a definite and defiant Two Bird Theory. There was a Little Stint present on the 20th, at least for a while. I am sure of it.

Right then, what about that job in Norfolk? Loads of photos, lots of opinions, and all of them contradictory. Oh, what fun. Speaking as someone who hasn't seen it and won't see it [unless it gets bored of them easterners and comes down here, in which case I might {Not like I need either of them. :D }] I can categorically say I'm not sure. The person who said "The camera never lies" was a liar. This is known. Anyway, in some shots it looks very Semi, in most pretty Western. If I'd seen it I'd probably be fairly sure one way or the other, as to me Semi's look like funny little Sanderling, and Westerns like funny little Dunlin. If you put a short-billed Dunlin and a long-billed Sanderling in pretty much identical plumage, you could still tell them apart, [even if you don't look at the toes], right? Exactly.

Changing the subject; gazing listlessly out the window at lunchtime today, 3 Bullfinches flew by. Yay. Then 2 Fieldfares went the other way. Double yay.

Hidden P.S.; I am counting the Semi, btw, and that is my 250th for Britain this year. Woo.