First off, sandpipers is often used as a general term for shorebirds, the little chaps that run around on the mud picking up food and making piping noises. The Americans call them 'peeps'. Us Brits call them waders. But sandpiper is also a name given to a distinct group of three shorebirds in Europe and Asia, namely the common, wood and green sandpiper. The last two are really special to UK birdwatchers because they hardly ever breed in this country so we have to wait until they pass through on their migration south from Scandinavia to Central Africa. The green sandpiper will sometimes overwinter here but the wood sandpiper is only seen for a few weeks each year - and mid-August is just about the peak time to see one. So when I heard that no less than three had been seen at Lodmoor RSPB reserve just outside Weymouth I grabbed my video camera and tripod and set off in pursuit.
As I arrived at the reserve I was pleased to see one of my fellow birders walking down the path towards me. And he had a smile on his face. "Wood sandpiper - right next to the path" That was what I wanted to hear! A minute or two later I had it in my viewfinder. However it proved to be less than co-operative as it quickly disappeared from view. Here are my first attempts at filming it:
Lots of lovely close views but more vegetation than bird most of the time. I waited for it to come out again, finger on the record button. And I waited. And I waited some more. Then another birder back down the path waved me over. "Here it is - right out in the open!" And there it was, stood on a lump of mud, stock still. What on earth was going on? Never mind I'll film it anyway. This is normally the cue for whatever I'm looking at to dive into cover, but no, the bird just stood there, right in front of us. Then it became obvious why the bird was so preoccupied. Watch the video closely and you'll see what I mean.
Did you catch it? I hope not. Actually this is not the first time I've seen a water bird go up onto dry land to take care of its bodily functions. Makes sense if you think about it. Anyway, I persevered and soon got some much better footage (or should that be pixelage?) of it feeding. Enjoy.
Just in case you want to know what the other sandpipers look like here's a short sequence of a common sandpiper, filmed at the same spot a few weeks earlier:
And here's a green sandpiper at the RSPB's other reserve in Weymouth, Radipole Lake in January 2012. It's a bit shaky because I had only just started filming then and hadn't worked out that you actually need to use a tripod!