Bird of month - Common Sandpiper  

There are several places in the Valley to find wading birds but they are not easily found, apart from at Moor Green Lakes and the gravel workings at Badshot Lea. One wading bird that appears at those places, around many lakes and on the river edges almost anywhere in the Valley at this time is the Common Sandpiper.

The Common Sandpiper is usually solitary, but sometimes turns up with another one or two on passage at this time
of year. They also appear in other months but generally as passage birds or occasionally for quite a time wintering at a favoured site.

They are medium-sized, rather dull in colour, brownish on top with a white wing bar and white underneath showing a longish tail, but they have some very distinguishing behaviour to help identify them. They are normally found at the water’s edge eating insects and will be bobbing their tails and bodies incessantly, especially on landing - they rarely stand still. They don’t probe with their bills but pick the food from under stones and even from animal faeces, working around the edge of lakes and river banks. When disturbed you might hear them call ‘swee-swee-swee-swee-swuu’ and they fly off close to the water and very directly to their next stopping place. The flight is highly distinctive as they take off with a few stiff wing beats and then glide before another burst of wing action to a nearby location.

I used to live in the Peak District where Common Sandpipers bred and they like the fast-flowing clear streams found in many of the northern or western hills and mountains of the British Isles. While they turn up anywhere by water on passage they are normally on higher ground in the breeding season. While it is one of the more common wading birds to be found the numbers overall are not very large and Britain probably holds about 16,000 pairs. They migrate to Africa and cross the Sahara desert in large numbers in September.

There are one or two confusion species, the most common of which is the Green Sandpiper. This is another passage bird and would generally be told by being darker and showing a distinct white rump and black underwing when it flies. While the Green Sandpiper is less common it is still a bird you could easily find at this time of the year, although they are more likely to be found in places with larger muddy patches such as the scrapes and islands at Moor Green Lakes.

This is one of my favourite birds and if you watch out for them around the many lakes and river banks in the Valley I am sure you will be lucky, if not in September then over the winter months ahead.

Colin Wilson

Berkshire Ornithological Club
www.berksoc.org.uk            

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