Waders at Oare marshes ID

Ukwildlifeo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-10-2011, 09:43 PM

Had my first trip to Oare in too long over the weekend and my wader ID skills (what little I had) are a bit rusty. The golden plovers and other obvious spcies Iw as fine with, but the smaller brown 'typical' waders had me um-ing and ahh-ing. Any help with these appreciated!

Dunlin?

Same bird (I think) on the left with golden plover for scale

Little stint?

Snipe?

If they are they would be my first of 2011 I'm ashamed to admit!

Shrike · #2 (**permalink**) 10-10-2011, 10:06 PM

I'm gonna agree with your dunlin and snipe but go for dunlin as well rather than L.stint.

tigertom · #3 (**permalink**) 10-10-2011, 10:13 PM

1 2 + 3 dunlin 4 not 100% no this but think little stint and 5 snipe

MIKE

Shrike · #4 (**permalink**) 10-10-2011, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shrike

I'm gonna agree with your dunlin and snipe but go for dunlin as well rather than L.stint.

No i've changed my mind i'm leaning towards little stint now , the bill does look shorter.

aeshna5 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 04:26 AM

The last photo shows 2 Woodcock,otherwise would say all the calidrids are Dunlin.

tigertom · #6 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 09:11 AM

Can see 5 are woodcock now pot bellied look and lack of white on belly should of told me that,
MIKE

RoyW · #7 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 02:31 PM

All as suggested in the original post - although the Little Stint is surprisingly difficult to be sure of from this single photo.

The last photo does show snipe, the white belly and largely pale underwings of the leading bird are visible, the wings are long, slender and very pointed, and the bills are relatively long (generally a touch shorter on Woodcock).

Dogghound · #8 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 05:37 PM

I suspect that it is a little stint, not a great photo for ID but looks more characteristic of this species than a dunlin from what I can see.

I personally think the bottom photo shows woodcock too, however I find IDing birds from photo's like this more challenging than in the field.

Shrike · #9 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 06:16 PM

TBH i never considered woodcock for the last pic which i should of , but as you say DH this wouldn't of been a problem in the field.Saying this i do get a lot of good pointers from having a crack at photo i.d'ing.

Ukwildlifeo · #10 (**permalink**) 11-10-2011, 06:26 PM

Cheers guys, so for the pants photos, they were that little bit to far off. Ill try dig out another pic of the stint, but it looked just that bit smaller than most of the other waders if memory serves.

As for the snipe woodcock, they were in a flock of 4 or 5 if that helps. Ill try lighten up the photo