Friday 21 September 2012

Peep Show

Another excellent day birding along the North Wirral coast, with the sole intention of trying to secure video footage (and a sound recording) of the Semipalmated Sandpiper. Unfortunately, whilst it was still showing well it was keeping a reserved distance. I mooted on the drive over that we should really find a Baird's or similar, sure enough whilst searching for the Semi-P a fellow birder picked out a White-rumped Sandpiper. Like earlier it showed very well but kept its distance hence the very fuzzy photo. Another great find and more reason to keep searching.

Internet chatter being what it is, the (now as far as i  am concerned) Semi-P is getting a damn good grilling. And i suppose to a certain extent rightly so, after all this how we can improve our own ID techniques. Various other photos, excellent as they are seem to show the Semi-P in light which can add/throw contrast and colour. In the field the peep really is very drab gingery brown and not the rufous toned bird depicted in other photos. I went through some other shots from Wednesday just to try and show how it appears in the field. I hope they are of use.

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