Least Worst Options

I've not posted much local news lately but now I feel compelled to! At 6pm last evening I thought 'Shall I cycle to BHM for high tide or not?' The inclement weather might have put me off but it stopped raining long enough for a dash down on the old 2-wheeler. I took a look from the screen at the North end and saw a stint species with a Dunlin and a Common Sandpiper. Excellent, the first stint of the Autumn. However, it didn't look like any Little Stint I've seen on BHM before, being extremely dark-looking in the evening murk. It flew and I lost it so pressed on to Island Hide. I passed Tim White on the way and told him I'd seen a stint species and would try to relocate it. From the hide I quickly picked it up again and now, in my scope, it seemed to have pale legs. At this point I thought to myself that it looked like a Least Sandpiper, having seen them before in Britain and also in Canada. This prompted me to phone (not text as I wanted to stay on the bird!) Phil Abbot & Ian McLean as past experience has shown me that these 2 are most likely to shoot down and join me if I'm on anything interesting at that time of day. Seeing them march past him no doubt gave TW a clue that we were on this stint and he joined us. I was now able to text Steve Waite as the others could follow the bird and even photograph it as I had no camera with me. Some doubts were expressed as to whether the bird actually had pale legs but I protested that if they had looked pale to me in such terrible light they must be - surely! Once we agreed that the bird had pale legs we only had 3 species to sort out. Temminck's was quickly eliminated as the bird had 'tramlines' i.e. a white V on its back. Plus it flew and showed no white outer tail-feathers. This left Least Sandpiper and Long-toed Stint, which were once considered to be conspecific. The difference is that LTS has not just long toes but a long tibia i.e. long legs, and this bird had short legs and was very compact overall, showing no sign of a long neck either. The fact that its supercilia met the base of its bill was not easy to see in the dark but became more apparent this morning in better light. Its split supercilium is more a feature of LTS but is OK for Least (although it bothered me for a while cycling home!). So, although I would have liked the bird to be a LTS (as I've never seen one!) I was forced to accept the Least option and concede that this was a Calidris Minutilla. Ian Mc also noticed that the bird had dark ear-coverts which is a feature of Least so a team effort with the i.d. all round. Back home last night, I read in my Shorebirds books that adult Leasts migrate from mid-July, which means that 2nd August is a good date for one too, whereas it's extremely unlikely for a LTS. So we'll have to find one of those in another month or so. In the meantime, enjoy the best 'peep' we've had yet on BHM, as it's showing well in better light today. You're welcome!