Had a trip up this morning, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Sanderling still up there. This Dunlin stood out from the rest on account of it's small size and colouring. Not too good on splitting waders into subspecies and collins doesn't cover arctica but there's been a few reported about the country so thought it a possible candidate. It's the right hand bird in the second picture, stayed distant so couldn't do much better. Staying near the tyre by the boathouse.
2 comments:
I don't think this is an arctica Jim, the bill looks too long to me, I'd go for a male schinzii. When I used to watch Whiteholme on a regular basis in the late 80's early 90's I only ever had one bird I thought was a definite arctica, very small billed, almost stint like. I have seen a lot of arctica outside the UK and I would say they are not at all easy to separate from most other Dunlin's especially from shinzii. When compared to the large North American and Asian races they are a lot more apparent. However don't be put off by this as there is a lot of variation between races and the separation is very hard if not often impossible in the UK, and well done for noticing this smaller bird
regards
Martyn
Cheers, missed the stint, bugger!
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