Least Sandpiper at Otterhampton Marshes
A local birder reports on a rare find this January.
Written by: Nick Wall
New Year’s Day in west Somerset was pretty wet and miserable, so not much birding for me, the next day looked much better - cold, calm and sunny and ideal for a visit to Steart Marshes. This area is just a few miles away from home and I have birded the Stert peninsular since 1986. Over this time there have been massive changes, particularly in the last 15 years or so as WWT has built an extensive range of new wetland habitats. In short it is a great birding area to have so close to home and the aim on the 2nd of January was to check out a few of the wader hotspots in the area and then walk Stockland Marshes which was likely to be less busy. It also held a faint possibility of repeating a find of Penduline Tits which happened there exactly two years previously to the day. That never transpired!
One of the best spots to stop and scan is the Quantock View hide that overlooks Otterhampton Marshes, offering superb wader and duck viewing. I got there about 9:30, aiming to get the year list going and maybe catch up with a Little Stint that we had seen there in December. Although it was pretty ‘birdy’ there were no small waders until a small flock of Dunlin dropped in amongst a group of Teal feeding about 100m out from the hide
These were hard to see between the duck, but I got partial views of a very small darkish looking stint which I mentioned looked unusual to some other birders who unfortunately didn’t stay, even when I said it had pale looking legs! I was pretty sure it was a Least Sandpiper, having previously seen many in the Americas as well as a few in the UK. But it was completely off my radar for January and apart from being a first record for the county it would be a big call without backup! Luckily another Somerset birder, Paul Marshall had arrived by now and we scrutinised and discussed the bird as it actively fed and allowed much better views (including some shaky phone scope footage), that reveal its true leg colour, head, chest and back pattern as well as wing length and structure.
My son, Sam, who is also a birder and works for WWT, arrived and we discussed releasing the news and giving time for WWT to prepare for a likely influx of visitors. This was readily agreed so I put the news out on the Somerset WhatsApp group knowing it would soon hit the national news services.
Waders continued to arrive over the morning, all fairly mobile due to Peregrine flyovers and several times the Least Sandpiper took flight, relocating to different pools around the marsh, at one stage joining a Little Stint where the size comparison really nailed it!
At the time of writing the Least Sandpiper is still present, although it can be elusive and at times requires a bit of patience to locate.
Image: Least sandpiper, Brian Sweeting
