Recent Sightings Friday 22nd September – Pectoral Sandpiper Duty - thanks to volunteer Phil for his report and photos
On Friday I found myself spending several hours at the Hanger and then Nettley’s Hide showing visitors the 2 pectoral sandpipers that turned up a few days earlier. Never having seen one before, this would have been quite a tricky task if I hadn’t received a masterclass in identification from 2 very experienced regular Friday visitors at the Hanger. The birds were first reported on Tuesday 19th and have since been generating considerable interest.
Sadly at a distance of about 200 yards it is impossible to obtain a worthwhile photograph of a relatively small bird about 8-9 inches long. It seems that no one else has managed either so here's a lovely illustration from Mike Langman (rspb-images.com).
The birds were feeding by the near edge of the main pool on the North Brooks, sometimes in the water where they were easier to spot and sometimes on the grass. They were close to a pair of smaller dunlin which have noticeably darker and more downcurved beaks. The sandpipers have a pale stripe above the eye, speckled wings and back and a lightly streaked breast with a slightly reddish colour indicating a juvenile. The term “pectoral” refers to the breast and the key identification feature is a pronounced shallow V shaped boundary between the breast pattern and the white under belly. Without this the birds could easily be mistaken for female ruffs, which sometimes turn up here at this time of year and are only slightly larger.
Pectoral sandpipers breed in the Arctic areas of North America and Siberia and are very long distance migrants wintering mainly in South America with some birds in the Siberian population wintering in Australia or New Zealand. Some birds winter in Africa. They are classed in the UK and Western Europe as scarce passage migrants as a few birds turn up each year and they have been seen at Pulborough very occasionally before.
One visitor asked me what would happen to these birds – an excellent question I was unable to answer at the time. However I have discovered some speculation that pectoral sandpipers turning up in the UK and Western Europe may actually be on a migration route to Africa from either North America or Siberia rather than blown off course by Atlantic weather systems. Some birds do have an extraordinary ability to find their way around the world. For most migratory species the adults set off on their migration earlier than the juveniles which have to find their way to wintering grounds, sometimes thousands of miles away, with no help - an astonishing feat of navigation.
Another migratory wader which also displays this same characteristic is the black tailed godwit, and this species was remarkable by its absence on Friday. Throughout the summer and early autumn we have regularly seen godwits in small numbers. Most likely these belong to the more southerly breeding population that is concentrated around the Netherlands and breeds in small numbers in East Anglia. These birds typically spend the winter in Africa, and maybe we have now seen the last of them for the year. However there is every likelihood that in the next few weeks we will start to see black tailed godwits appearing from the Icelandic population to overwinter in the south of England. In early 2016 we had a peak count of over 1000 Icelandic godwits on the reserve, although this number was exceptional and peak counts in the low hundreds would be more likely.
Lapwing numbers are gradually increasing with birds most likely coming over from Europe for the winter. There were well over 100 on Friday and numbers will most likely build more rapidly in the coming weeks.
Mowing continues on the South Brooks and the tractor was working around West Mead. Some people commented that this would drive away the wildlife, but it was actually having the opposite effect with raptors coming quite close to the tractor to feed on small mammals that had been disturbed. Throughout the day up to 8 buzzards were seen here along with several kestrels. Two red kites stayed for the whole day, here seen from Winpenny Hide.
Once again 2 hobbies were seen hawking dragonflies, quite unconcerned by the tractor.
I have noticed that many animals exhibit no fear of noisy vehicles or machinery, whereas they immediately recognise people as a possible threat and move away. However one rabbit was just too close to the tractor and had to run for its life.
The same principle does not apply to insects which have no innate fear of humans so they are generally much easier to photograph. On my way to find the pectoral sandpipers I stopped in Fattengates Courtyard to examine my favourite ivy bush. Initially all was quiet. It had been a chilly night, but by 10am most of the bush was bathed in sunshine and was gradually warming up. A hornet was sunbathing on the top of the bush.
Over the course of the next 15 minutes the bush gradually came to life. The most numerous species was, appropriately, the ivy bee, but this week I found a hoverfly species not seen last week - helophilus pendulus, sometimes called a sunfly.
This is a common species that can often be seen on flowers in various part of the reserve during the summer.
Finally I can add some further information regarding last week’s unusual sighting of 2 white storks. I have found more reports of storks on the Sussex Ornithological Society (SOS) website, including one of 8 birds in East Sussex and a photograph of a bird with strange looking wings that looked identical to one of my own photos. A blue leg ring was seen on this bird, strongly suggesting it to be an escapee from a reintroduction programme, and that its wings have been clipped. I couldn’t help admiring this bird for its ability to generate enough aerodynamic lift to fly with incomplete wings.
I have now discovered that, while Knepp Estate is leading on a white stork reintroduction programme, a number of other landowners are involved covering areas in Surrey, East and West Sussex. There may be several escapees or releases and Knepp now admits to there being 3 of their birds that have become free flying. For the time being sightings are not being considered by the SOS for recording as wild birds unless there is strong evidence they have flown over from Europe. Nevertheless, I am content to enjoy their presence and hope that eventually a sustainable wild population will be established.