what is this ?

[paulo]

I live in Bristol, and saw flying over our local river a bird that I have never seen before ... does anyone know what it might have been ? It was, swallow shaped (pointed wings) but appeared to have almost no tail. It was about twice the size of a swallow though. I thought it was light grey (Steph my girlfriend says more beige). Two distinctive points were that it appeared to have a continuous white margin to the trailing edge of its wings, and across its tail, and that it beat its wings through 180 degrees (ie it held them vertical at the end of its strokes) and was quite an acrobatic flier, flying low over the water, though I think that it took off from the land. I think that it had a short and sharp call. I've given up looking in my books - does anyone have an idea what it was ?

[John]

It sounds like a wader to me paulo but which one may be difficult to pin down. a lot of waders have similar markings to those you have described.

Looking at the size you state it sounds like one of the larger waders and one that comes to mind is Oystercatcher. here is one of my images of that bird.


And here is a photo by fisher showing them in flight.


Another one that comes to mind, but a smaller wader is a Turnstone and here is a link to a flight photo of these birds by PMG. these are a little larger than a swallow.


Another large wader (but with a distinctively long beak that I'm sure you would have seen) is a Black-tailed Godwit and here is a flight shot from jdoherty that shows the white on the wings and tail area.


There is also a bird that can look a bit like a House Martin in flight and that is a Curlew Sandpiper but this is a similar size to a swallow.

Do any of these ring any bells?

John

[solus]

Common Sandpiper?

[John]

Originally Posted by solus

Common Sandpiper?

I thought of C Sand but there isn't much white in the trailing edge of the wing so that is why I ignored it.

John

[paulo]

Thank you for your replies, especially John; the photos of the birds are great - I'm learning more than I bargained for. But back to my question though (!), and having seen your suggested birds, it reminds me that what was also distinctive was that the bird seemed to be a single colour on its back and wings (except for the white trailing edge) - I would say like the grey of a woodpigeon. I looked up the possible curlew sandpiper and found a picture of it in flight - its wings look too broad at the shoulder to be what I thought I saw. I didn't see any trailing legs either, and although it was over the river, it wasn't really a wading area. This might sound naive, but it seemed to be too agile in flight to be a wader ! Also it was on its own. I'll look out for it later today as you kind suggestions I don't think were it.

[Cotham Marble]

Simply on the basis that individuals can often be seen on the Avon downstream of Bristol, I'd suggest redshank; take a look at:




CM

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by paulo

I live in Bristol, and saw flying over our local river a bird that I have never seen before ... does anyone know what it might have been ? It was, swallow shaped (pointed wings) but appeared to have almost no tail. It was about twice the size of a swallow though. I thought it was light grey (Steph my girlfriend says more beige). Two distinctive points were that it appeared to have a continuous white margin to the trailing edge of its wings, and across its tail, and that it beat its wings through 180 degrees (ie it held them vertical at the end of its strokes) and was quite an acrobatic flier, flying low over the water, though I think that it took off from the land. I think that it had a short and sharp call. I've given up looking in my books - does anyone have an idea what it was ?

Sounds like Common Sandpiper.

Cheers,

Adam

[John]

Originally Posted by Adam Cheeseman

Sounds like Common Sandpiper.

Cheers,

Adam

Your probably right Adam but I can't recall C Sands with wing beats as descibed by Paulo.

John

[UB4 gardener]

what about a tern?

Chris