American waders at east coast RSPB reserves

In the past week I have been lucky enough to see two ‘lifers’, both of which were American waders and both at fantastic RSPB reserves. These come on the back of yet another American wader seen less than a month ago – a Lesser Yellowlegs at RSPB Titchwell, making it a triple header of new wading birds for me, all at east coast RSPB reserves.

On Monday I visited Minsmere to see a juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper, which had been found over the weekend. Incredibly this is the second east anglian Semi P in less than a month after one previously found at Snettisham (thought to be a different bird), which I had dipped. I was therefore quite keen to see this one. It had been frequenting South Scrape and regular reports had implied that it was relatively settled. On arriving at Minsmere, amazingly my first visit to this great reserve for nearly 10 years, we headed straight to South hide. Initially the peep was not in view, but it didn’t take long for it to show itself and good, prolonged but distant views could be had. Other birds on the scrape included 7+ Spotted Redshank and an impressive flock of at least 79 Little Gulls including several juveniles.

Semipalmated Sandpiper (if you can find it!)

Little Gulls

After enjoying the Semi P for about half an hour time was spent exploring the rest of the reserve. A Hobby was seen hawking dragonflies towards the Bittern hide and at least 2 Great White Egrets were seen around North Marsh. Bushes near the Sluice looked good for migrants and contained decent numbers of Warblers, Stonechats and Wagtails, though nothing scarcer than Lesser Whitethroats could be found. A Pied Flycatcher was found by others in this spot the next day, showing that there is potential here. The dunes area contained lots of Grayling butterflies as well as a few Common Lizards. However, the star sighting here were 4+ female Wasp Spiders – a new species for me.

Barn Swallow juvenile

Wasp Spider female

News broke later in the week of another rare wader – an adult Stilt Sandpiper at Frampton Marsh. On Thursday afternoon I was very kindly offered a lift to go see it and jumped at the chance. We arrived in the evening after battling rush hour traffic on the way. The news was good; the Stilt Sand was still there and better yet it had been joined by a juvenile Red-necked Pharalope. We quickly walked around to observe North Scrape and were soon watching the rare wading pair. Both the Stilt Sand and the Pharalope were feeding frenetically on what was a relatively small scrape. I had been expecting distant views but both birds were feeding only about 50 metres away and, to make the scene even more enjoyable, the Sun was starting to peek through bringing with it some lovely light for photography.

Stilt Sandpiper adult

Red-necked Pharalope juvenile

At times the Stilt Sandpiper and Red-necked Pharalope shared the same area of scrape and fed side by side. It was a truly awesome birding experience. People may criticise the RSPB for some of their more controversial decisions, but they sure create wonderful reserves which attract some awesome birds.

Size comparison showing a juvenile Black-tailed Godwit dwarfing the Stilt Sand and Red-necked Phal