THE BIRDS OF SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE
BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER – Limicola falcinellus
Found by: K. E. Vinicombe.
Oldbury-on-Severn, August 1983: © Keith Vinicombe.
When I arrived at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station, early on the evening of August 20th 1983, many waders were at high tide roost in the northern silt lagoon. There were some 500 Ringed Plovers, 200 Dunlin and 100 Redshank. Closer scrutiny showed also seven Little Ringed Plovers, two Sanderling, a Grey Plover, a Ruff, three Common Sandpipers, three Black-tailed Godwits, a Spotted Redshank and two Greenshanks. On re-scanning the flock I suddenly saw a small dark wader among the Ringed Plovers and Dunlin - obviously it was a Broad-billed Sandpiper, and from its badly abraded feathers, an adult still in summer plumage. I found it at 18:15, and until I left at 19:25 I watched it on and off at ranges down to 50 metres. The following evening it reappeared for over two hours, and was seen by 25 - 30 people. It was apparently also seen on the dawn tide on the 22nd, but not subsequently.
It was distinctly smaller than the Dunlins, although much larger than Little Stint, with a rather rounded body and a short, stumpy rear end. Its most distinctive features were its very dark plumage and its conspicuously striped-headed appearance. It had a dark patch from the bill through the eye, squared-off at the rear of the ear-coverts. Above this, a prominent whitish supercilium curved up over the eye and again up slightly towards the nape. The crown was a very dark blackish-brown, with a narrow whitish 'upper supercilium' on either side, apparently unconnected to the supercilium itself. The rest of the cheeks and the throat were whitish.
Its upperparts were very dark blackish-brown, the feathers so worn that many of the pale edgings were lost (for example, those of the tertials were completely worn away). However, there was a dull, messy, buffish-brown line down the edge of the third row of scapulars. It had a clear-cut, well-streaked, buffish brown breast-band with some mottling extending down on to the flanks. Its legs were greyish. Its blackish bill was straight with a slight downward kink at the tip, shorter than the bills of most of the Dunlin nearby, and did not strike me as being particularly broad.
In flight, the bird looked very dark, with a conspicuous white wing-bar. It fed occasionally, in a manner recalling Dunlin, but like its companions it slept for most of the time. When the flock flew on the 21st, it called several times amongst the Ringed Plovers and Dunlin, giving a rather hard, dry, trilling 'Pprrrrrrk', difficult to describe!
This was the first record of the species for the Avon recording area. There are three earlier records for the Severn Estuary: at Slimbridge from May 6-9 and on June 2, 1976; at Peterstone Pill, Gwent on May 7, 1979; and at Aylburton Warth, Gloucestershire, on May 15, 1980.
The nominate race Limicola f. falcinellus breeds mainly in Scandinavia and Western Russia, and winters on the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and east to India and Sri Lanka, with some in East Africa. A more chestnut-coloured race, L. f. sibirica. breeds in Eastern Siberia and winters in the Far East and Australia. The species has been regarded as a very rare spring vagrant in Britain, mostly in Eastern England; there were 66 occurrences up to 1981, and an unprecedented seven in 1982. This increase continued in 1983, and a pair spent much of June at Aberlady Bay, Lothian. On several occasions they were seen to display, raising the possibility that the species could follow Temminck's Stint, Purple Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper, and nest in northern Scotland.
Keith Vinicombe - August 1983.