The Semipalmated Sandpiper at Brockholes Quarry, Lancashire.

 25th July 2004.

A new bird for Lancashire.

by Tony Disley and Bill Aspin.

Sunday 25 July I (Tony Disley) was due to work at the Infocus shop at Martin Mere, and so I thought an early start at the Quarry was in order as I hadn’t been the day before due to an artwork deadline. I arrived at 07.15hrs in strong winds and pouring rain, not surprisingly I elected to view the main pool from the car. The site had been going through a bit of a purple patch of late, with Pectoral Sandpiper, Long eared Owl and Manx Shearwater in recent weeks. With the weather today looking particularly good for wader passage. As I scanned the eastern end of the main pool with my bins a small wader appeared very briefly then disappeared amongst the maze of sand and gravel. My first thought was a washed out adult Sanderling but it was only when an adult Dunlin appeared where it had been that I realised it was a Stint on size. About 30 seconds later it reappeared in roughly the same spot and I was immediately struck by it's drab appearance and mix of grey and black scapulars. I reached for my Camcorder, got out of the car and began setting up my tripod, but the bird had disappeared again.

Several minutes later I picked it up again scanning with my Bins, as it was still pouring with rain I looked from the car, resting my scope on the window. I watched it for about 2-3 minutes from the car through the scope as it fed with a Dunlin. It was now that the first thought of Semi-palmated Sandpiper came into my head, but I dismissed that and considered that the birds bill shape didn’t look as thick and blunt tipped as I thought it should for that species, though the upperpart pattern did look good.

I quickly decided it must be a drab Little Stint, this with hindsight being a rash decision!

It was at this point that I texted Bill Aspin and William Berry that there was a Little Stint present. As I scanned back to where it was, there was no sign again just the Dunlin it was with. Just then the Stint flew past and began to gain height slowly as it flew the length of the main pool, and appeared to be departing as I lost it behind trees. The thought of it maybe dropping down on the new workings spurred me on to don full waterproofs and wellies, as I wanted to see it for longer and try and get some footage.

I set off around the new workings no.1 pit, which has been excellent for waders recently. Halfway along the raised banking of no.1, I started scanning the mass of pools and gravel bed, but with no sign. My waterproofs were by now soaking wet and I was beginning to worry about my camcorder getting water damage. However I wanted to see it one more time and try and get some video before I had to leave. As I got to the SW end of the pit I started scanning with my bins when I heard Dunlin calling, as I looked up two adult Dunlin dropped in front of me about 40 yards away. As I looked at them the Stint suddenly appeared behind them, this was my chance, I unfolded the legs of my tripod and set it down but then I heard the Dunlin calling. As I looked up the Stint was again airborne and flying round with the Dunlin, I watched as they flew towards the other end of the pit and appeared to drop down. Time was now getting on and I was soaking wet, I had to be thinking of leaving to get to Martin Mere on time, so I headed off back towards were they had dropped and had one last quick look but seeing nothing I decided to leave. Back at the car I texted the time (08.00hrs) I last saw the bird to Bill Aspin and left for Martin Mere.

Later that morning Bill rang and asked me what else had been present and we talked about the Stint. I said It appeared to lack any colour, I even said it looked like a Semi-pee at first, but that it's bill structure looked wrong and I thought it was a drab Little Stint. Bill said he would have a look for it and try get some video footage.

Later that afternoon I got a call from Bill saying it was still present but it had took him 5 hours to find it! He informed me that he had seen rufous tones to some of the upperparts and that it had a mantle 'v' and appeared to show no palmations (how wrong this proved to be! – WCA), and had managed to obtain a minute worth of footage. So we both concurred that it must have been the dull light in the bad weather earlier that had made it appear so drab. During the day more Dunlin had arrived and numbers had built up to 30 birds by late afternoon, along with 19 Ringed Plover. As Bill left the site at 17.15hrs the Stint was still present, the weather was rapidly improving and several Dunlin were already departing to the west.

Nevertheless as soon as I finished work at the Mere I headed straight to the Quarry, arriving at 18.15hrs, and had another look for it but without any luck, only 1 Dunlin now remained and I assumed the bird had departed with the rest of the Dunlin. As I got back to the car some other birders were watching a Hobby which distracted us for the rest of that evening as it performed on and off giving at times perched views. It was not until the next day that the identification was to be resolved!

I was behind with some pen & ink drawings I had a deadline to complete, and so was busy working late next morning when Bill rang to ask if I could email him some videograbs of the Hobby, I quickly did this while I looked at the Stint images he had emailed for the first time. Again I thought that the bird did look drab and had the upperpart pattern like a Semi-pee, but the birds bill now looked chunkier than it had in the field, but I told myself it can't be a Semi-pee because of the lack of palmations. So I went back to work with my drawings for the Sunbird brochure. Early afternoon my phone rang, it was Chris Batty, he'd been looking at the videograbs on Bills website and asked why it wasn’t a Semi-pee? I said that in the field it's bill didn’t appear chunky while I'd watched it, albeit for a short time. But I said that Bill had seen the feet and it did not appear to show palmations and that he had also noted some rufous tones to the upperperts.

We then discussed the bird at length, with Chris reading out some usefull points by Killian Mullarney and for the first time I checked it against field guides and illustrations I began to worry that we had made a monumental cock up!

The bird showed all the key features even down to the head pattern, Chris said he'd compared it to photos of an adult on the Scilly Isles last August and it was bang on. It was at this point I shouted out "F**K!!"

By now I was feeling a real mix of emotions, I said to Chris I need to speak to Bill and ask him about how convinced he is that it didn’t have palmations and that I'd call him back ASAP. I immediately rang Bills mobile, but being at work as he was, I got through to the answer phone and left a message saying ring me ASAP.

Getting back to my laptop I compared the bird to the pictures Chris had mentioned earlier, it was almost feather by feather the same bird, the only feature now really at odds was the lack of webbing between the toes (the palmations), I again rang Bill, this time he was able to answer.  “Are you absolutely convinced the bird has no palmations?” I asked  -, "Nooo!" came the animated reply!!! – A few hours earlier, whilst running late for work, Bill had checked the five images he had taken with his digital camera, which at the time he had dismissed as not worthy of looking at on the PC due to windshake. To his abject horror one appeared to clearly show a palmation between two toes and he had been able to think of nothing else whilst at work, prior to the call.

It was now that I fully realized the magnitude of what we had done!

We can only apologise for the catalogue of error and missed opportunity that this has led to for other birders. Many people realise the sensitive nature of the site and it's strict guidelines for visiting. We don’t want people to think it was supressed in any way. It was a genuine, monumental mistake, which we have to take on the chin, hold our hands up and admit.

Make no mistake that this is without doubt the lowest point of both our ornithological lives.

The only thing to be salvaged from this debacle is that at least the record has been clinched from a county perspective. And it once again highlights the importance of digiscoping.

Tony Disley and Bill Aspin (26/07/04).