Juvenile Wood Sandpipers can be identified by their neatly spotted upperparts and the finely streaked breast and both of these features can be seen quite clearly on this individual which turned up at Annesley Pit Top in Notts, yesterday. A passage migrant that is most likely to be seen during the autumn migration period this bird played true to form. Only a handful of these birds are normally found in Notts. during most years so this was an opportunity to see my first in Notts. for 2014. The legs on this individual were bright yellow and you can see how confusion with Lesser Yellowlegs can occur. Adult birds tend to have greener legs and confusion is less likely. Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Redshank, Greenshank - it's all in the colour of the legs! The bird was quite distant, feeding along the shore of the lower lagoon so I had to add a 2x converter to my 400mm lens. This resulted in me hand-holding the equivalent of an 800mm lens without autofocus so I was expecting a load of blurry out-of-focus shots. As it happened that's exactly what I got but I managed to rescue a dozen or so that will do as record shots. The best four or five are below.
August is a good month for passage waders so I expect a few 'goodies' over the next few weeks!
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| Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts |
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| Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts |
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| Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts |
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| Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts |
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| Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts |
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