Fetch Birdwatchers
1 lurker |
165 watchers
Aug 2018
6:55pm, 28 Aug 2018
1,340 posts
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J2R
I'm hopeless at identifying waders (and pretty hopeless with geese, and not great with ducks). Times one hundred, when in winter plumage. I really should make the effort to sort this out some time! When I go to places like Titchwell and Minsmere, there is always someone ridiculously knowledgeable nearby whom I can ask (and who can often show me a crystal clear photo they've just taken, demonstrating the slightly darker area at the base of the upper mandible which identifies the bird as a whatever), but I need to know in places where I'm by myself! 
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Aug 2018
7:04pm, 28 Aug 2018
17,822 posts
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flanker
I feel your pain J2R. Every Feb after a week in Norfolk I seem to have about got them, but within a couple of weeks they all start to merge back into long-legged, long-beaked, grey-and-white birds. If we can't tell what it is, Knot is the stock answer. The Garden Warbler of the wetlands! |
Aug 2018
7:23pm, 28 Aug 2018
26,738 posts
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Derby Tup
Start with a few easy ones: curlew, lapwing, redshank, common sand (white ‘braces’), oystercatcher. Then add dunlin (smudgy black tummy), greenshank, ringed plover. Ten are easy. Progress to curlew sand, little stint when ready 
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Aug 2018
7:35pm, 28 Aug 2018
26,739 posts
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Derby Tup
Five favourite waders: Spotted redshank Curlew sandpiper (juveniles are gorgeous) Whimbrel Oystercatcher (I’m sat under a 4ft x 3 ft print of three of them posting this) Golden plover (“peeeeeeeep”) Obviously tomorrow my list will be completely different
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Aug 2018
8:28pm, 28 Aug 2018
1,341 posts
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J2R
Well, I do know a good few waders like the first ones you mention, DT (and my own personal favourite would have to be the curlew, with its fabulous curved beak and one of the most hauntingly evocative songs of all birds). But I'm unfamiliar with curlew sandpipers and little stints, I get confused by the sandpipers, and I can be flummoxed by knots unless I get a good view. Never seen a whimbrel.
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Aug 2018
9:58pm, 28 Aug 2018
26,740 posts
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Derby Tup
Great time of year with adults and this year’s young passing through. Listen out for whimbrel call - very distinctive
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Aug 2018
12:10am, 29 Aug 2018
17,823 posts
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flanker
Those easy ones are generally OK DT as they are all pretty distinctive, apart from the common sand, which I need to go and look up. And I'd add Sanderling too, based on their behaviour as much as anything. But it's when you get to the long-legged white and grey ones that it gets tricky. Part of the problem, especially in winter, is that you are often looking at things a long way off in poor light and weather, so its very hard to see the detail in the plumage or leg colours. |
Aug 2018
10:13pm, 29 Aug 2018
3,316 posts
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Fragile Do Not Bend
Running by the river a mile from home today, I caused a large flock of house martins to fly out of a hedge. Never seen so many together before, I thought they were sparrows until I realised they didn’t sound like sparrows. Would that mean they are gathering to depart soon?
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Aug 2018
10:36am, 30 Aug 2018
894 posts
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timaru
My cat brought a Wax Eye in this evening ad promptly dropped it at my feet after i tried to rescue it. It was alive and i put it between my legs to keep it warm and recover before letting it go. My other cat came in and wandered over only to find it ... well he got it and i have deep lacerations all over my right thigh, and both forearms. Bloody cats. The wax Eye are just gorgeous little things nzbirdsonline.org.nz They spend the winter down near the coast then bugger off back into the hills for the summer. |
Aug 2018
1:04pm, 30 Aug 2018
442 posts
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um
[I can imagine the disbelief at A&E ... "You put the bird between your thighs to keep it warm? Then your cat did that?" Yes, of course sir ....] |
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