Bird ID request

[Urisk]

Hey all. Wondered if I could pick some folks' brains here. I live on the site of an old station, with some of the track being part of the grounds. There is a field owned by the local tree nursery next to the house (and track, subsequently filled in, but that's not important here) that seems to have a small "locality" (as it were) of several oystercatcher nests. Now, in amongst these seems to be what I think maybe another bird.

It is black and white, like the oystercatcher (or at least appears to be), and also appears to ground-nest, but seems a little more dainty and has a significantly different call. Quite different from the oystercatcher's distinctive "pip pip pip" this seems to be more of a, what can only really be described as a "pitiful squeal". A kind of "keh-h-h" sounding somewhat similar to an animal being killed or in severe distress (it actually sounds like it's rather depressed). In flight it seems to have quite shallow wingbeats, and looks almost as if it's hovering, as the amount of beats it makes doesn't seem to take it very far. It doesn't seem as big as an oystercatcher and I can't see the bright red bill characteristic of oystercatchers. I did wonder if this were maybe a female (or even male, depending on which ones tended to spend most of their time on the old track racing up and down it making the characteristic "pip" noise), but I'm not convinvced they are the same species.

Does anyone have any idea what this might be? I would say really that it seems to look more like a small raptor like a kestrel (although probably NOT a raptor) than a wader. Any help or info would be much appreciated.

Cheers


the Urisk

[Tursiops2]

Hi Urisk.

There's no discernible difference between male and female Oystercatcher

As for your mystery bird, a couple of possibilities that spring to mind are Common sandpiper and Little ringed plover. What part of the country are you in and what is your local countryside like?

T2

[Urisk]

Hey, T2. Thanks for the reply. Here's where I am:


Angus- the East coast of Scotland. As for countryside, I suppose hilly really. 15-20 miles from the sea, A lot of hills in the surrounding area (some of which still has uncultivated land), but the house itself is in fairly flat ground between all these hills. As I said, the field is being used by the tree nursery, and it's a fair size, so several things get planted at once, all in patches.


I'll certainly have a look at the plover and sandpiper in the morning and let you know!

[Andy Warne]

The way you describe the call makes me think of Lapwing, you can listen to its call here The RSPB: Lapwing

[Urisk]

Well according to that recording, this bird makes a sound almost identical to the calls at the end of the soundclips! Admittedly it's usually at dusk when I'm taking the dogs out for their last walk of the day, when these guys are flapping about, squealing, so I can't really confirm the brown rump, but looking at its entry in Wikipedia, there is a picture of one flying that is the spitting image of the "mystery bird". Think that's what it is. Excellent! Thanks guys.