SANParks.org Forums

Saw this bird on Oct. 19, 2005, near Satara. Looks like Temminck's Stint to me, but Sasol reports the bird as 'A rare summer vagrant'. Any views?

Oh no another Quanjer!

PhilQ, it is very difficult to id waders on a photo alone. More than often it is their gizz and other habits that id's it for you. Let me go and have a look at it again this afternoon, ok?

At close looks, your pic of the wader shows a longer bill than that of a temminck's. Yours also seem to have yellowish legs where atemminck's has darker legs.

I say no, unfortunately not a Temminck's but will do a further study this afternoon when I get home.

I even doubt that it is a wood sindpiper like the others suggested. Legs looks to short and the wing feather pattern does not convince me.

For the 4th post on a trot...

BTW the best way to id a wader I have found is to make a video of it to get to see its Jizz(sorry got the spelling wrong the first time.)

"Jizz" (the unique postures and movements of a species).

Waders feed in different patterns. Some quicker than others. Without a video really you will have a hard time id'ing it.

What was it doing? Does it have a bee-bop bum? Was it running and stopping or just feeding left to right

To me it looks like a pale sandpiper. Maybe a juvenile common sandpiper? Okay, I am clutching .....

Ill do my homework. If it was a migrant i would find it in our european books. But these little active buggers, especially in wintercoat look so much alike. Important is indeed flight, the movement, who they feed and if possible the feathercolours under the wing and the breast. And then you have waders in streams, inland dams, shorelines etc.

I think I do have it on video. Will try and locate it on tape and post it. Will take some time. Thanks for the speedy response.

I posted some footage on www.focusonpictures.com/bird.m2v The file is about 5MB, when I checked it was properly displayed in Windows Media Player. Jerky at first, but replay it when you have seen it once and it will stream. Look forward to your comments.

I will stick with Common Sandpiper. It does seem to show the diagnostic white pectoral region above the folded wing (not 100% clear) and it does have the bee-bop bum.

The colouring isn't quite right, so that is why I think it might be a juvenile.

Anyone else?

General behaviour is very Common Sandpiper - "beebop bum" and quick movements. Also, the white shoulder is apparant in the video. I would say Common Sandpiper as well.

Can't see the video, but from this friend of mine a real birding expert I agree with him on Common Sandpiper:

PhilQ, temminck's stint has only been recorded in SA on a handfull of occasions and if this was one there would have been a whole lot of birders flocking to the the kruger. For some unknown reason kruger has not turned up serious wader rarties in some time.
The bill is the first give away in that it is too long. I agree with the rest in that it is most likley a sandpiper. Waders are one of the most difficult to ID and even experts in SA still debate over ID's, field ID is the best and this is still not always possitive or a given.
But still keep on looking, you never know what will turn up.

This is most definitely a Common Sandpiper. First of all, it is clear that this is a sandpiper of the Tringa genus. Stints are small and dainty birds with shorter bills. Specifically, stints have very short legs and you won't find them standing in running water like this one is. Stints are usually seen on exposed mudflats around the edges of dams or by the shore.

The lack of an eye brow and the unscaled appearance of the back of the bird eliminated Wood Sandpiper. The very fact that the bird is standing in running water should indicate already that this is a Common Sandpiper.

The wader group is certainly not easy to get to grips with. Some advice would be to familiarise yourself with the common ones and always consider them first. 95% of the waders you see are Wood Sanpiper, Common Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint. Once you really know these, the less common ones will start to stand out when you see them.

Thank you for your help. I certainly agree with your advice. The problem is that I live in a country quite far from the Kruger NP, and in an area where one seldom sees wading birds, if any. So I practice once a year in the KNP .....