Wood Sandpipers at Martin Mere : 8th August 2014

Wood Sandpipers at Martin Mere : 8th August 2014

Having been a bit preoccupied of late we were keen to take the opportunity of a nice day to follow reports of a pair of Wood Sandpipers seen from the Ron Barker Hide at Martin Mere WWT. We got there pretty quickly and after a cup of tea we headed straight up to the Ron Barker hide where we met a chap who had been looking at a pair of birds but wasn’t sure if they were the Wood Sandpipers or not.  The two birds concerned kept drifting off behind some reeds and would not give us constant views making a positive ID difficult.

We hummed and hawed about it whilst consulting our books and then a couple of more people came in but the confusion still continued until eventually the light became better and the birds came into the open. The main problem with identifying them as Wood Sandpipers was the leg colour which showed no sign on yellow. There was a very obvious supercilium which extended all the way to the back of its head. It was obviously a Sandpiper but also obviously not a Common. It wasn’t really dark enough on top for a Green Sandpiper. The problem of the leg colour, which was a dark brown, was perhaps explained later when the birds ended up amongst a mixed group of Redshank and Ruff. The Redshanks also had brown legs – at least until near the top when they were clearly red. It seems that the legs of all the birds were covered in mud and this had confused us.

In the end I even managed to get a little bit of phone-scoped video of the bird and we were all convinced in the end that it was a pair of Wood Sandpipers. As soon as we had decided this the light got better and only confirmed everyone’s prior conclusion. It is true that there was plenty of mud around. In Fact, the water was so low that most of the lake lagoon was mud.

Apart from waders there was a Buzzard on a post, a hovering Kestrel and a quartering Marsh Harrier so not too bad on the raptor front. There were also good numbers of Swallows and Sand Martins still feeding up, presumably with a view to fattening up for migration. We also saw one of the resident Whooper Swans.

Unfortunately we found out that in the afternoon from this hide a juvenile Cuckoo was sighted as well as some warblers that we missed so that was a shame.

Down at the Raines Observatory a flock of tree sparrows was drinking at the edge of the Lake and a large flock of Greylag Geese lifted up and moved across the reserve. There were some Teal and Mallard but it was quite quiet. The same was true of the Swanlink hide where there was just the usual suspects, a Lesser Black-backed Gull was of interest. At Janet Keir it was also quiet with a few Greenfinches the best birds.

The Harrier Hide was closed for repairs and the United Utilities hide was quiet as well. We wandered back through the collection and enjoyed some of the “zoo” birds before heading back home. So it had been a quiet day but the Wood Sandpipers had added interest and were a year tick for us.

It was just as well we left around 3.30pm because we got caught in some severe Friday afternoon traffic and it took us much longer to get back. We had to divert past Pennington Flash and along the East Lancs Road to avoid the motorway congestion !

Bird Sightings : WWT Martin Mere : Ron Barker hide