Oxon Mega: Standlake Marsh Sandpiper

I was just sitting in bed, unwinding after a busy day and idely scrolling on my phone when a message pinged in the Oxon birding WhatsApp chat. JD had apparently photographed a distant wader from the hide at Pit 60 in Standlake that morning. It wasn't until the evening when he looked through them that he starting wondering if the bird was actually a Marsh Sandpiper rather than a Greenshank as he had originally assumed. He shared the photos and after some discussion, the consensus was clearly in favour of Marsh Sandpiper. After all, there was a photo of it looking dwarfed by a Snipe so the size was immediately apparent. By the time the chat had died down it was after 11pm - way past my bedtime! I looked up what time sunrise was - 6:11 a.m. Oh well, it looked like I was going to be up early tomorrow!

The next morning I awoke at 4:30 a.m. and dozed until about 5:30 before realising that I was a bit late if I was going to be there at first light. So I rushed around as quietly as possible (so as not to wake anyone else) and was out the door shortly after 6 a.m. It was pouring with rain and consequently very dark and gloomy as I sped along the roads towards Standlake with just early commuters for company. En route news came through firstly of the bird still being present and secondly to confirm that everyone there did indeed agree that it was a Marsh Sandpiper. So it was game on! Arriving at Standlake, I parked up, donned all my waterproof gear and hurried down the path on the long slog to the east hide where the bird was to be viewed from. It wasn't particularly cold, just wet and in all my waterproof gear I soon got hot and sweaty. No time to worry about that now - there was a twitch on! En route to help pass the time I counted eight singing or calling Chiffchaff and one singing Willow Warbler. The slog seemed to go for ever until finally  I arrived, breathless and sweaty at the hide door and knocked (it was a key holder hide and I didn't have one) and was soon let in. 

Any doubts that I had were soon put to rest: yes, the bird was still there and someone immediately let me look through their scope "for the tick" and I could relax. There were five other people there before me and I found somewhere to sit, set up my scope and was soon on the bird. It was rather distant though its pallor stood out in the gloom and it was rather easy to pick up. I did try some digiscoping but the distance and light made it all but useless so I just contented myself with watching it. It was constantly on the move, shifting from bay to bay, constantly seeking out food. It's delicate bill and diminutive size made it look more like a Phalorope than a Greenshank, something I remember noting the only other time I saw one, in Gloucestershire back in 2014.

A representative view showing how distant it typically was, courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

The bird was generally hugging the southern shore which was lined with reeds but which had various bays dotted along it, at which the bird was feeding actively. Also present were a couple of Black-tailed Godwits, a Water Rail and a Common Sandpiper. It seemed to be unsure of where it preferred to feed as it was constantly trying new places. It would often have a little fly about before settling on the next location and was generally very active.

Flight shot courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

At one stage it briefly dropped in on a spit which was only about 40 yards from where we were. At that point the hide went into overdrive with everyone trying their best to photograph it while at the same time making "ooh yeah, that's it!", "come on, come closer!", "phwoar, look at that!" type of comments. Someone standing outside the hide door and listening would have been forgiven for thinking something altogether different was going on. I managed to botch my photo attempts during this brief "porning it" frenzy so below is the best effort of TM who was quicker off the mark.

 

Above and below, phonescoped courtesy of Thomas Miller

After that, it tried the north shore a bit, exploring all the nooks and crannies on that side before eventually returning to the favoured southern shore were it spent the rest of the time while I was there. With the bird easy to at least see even if it was too distant to photograph, the atmosphere was very genial and it soon turned to the usual friendly banter. People came and went, we reminisced about past county birds and generally talked the kind of rubbish that goes on at these events - and very enjoyable it was too!

Hot Hide Action (me in the middle with my trademark cap) courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

 

DL, in the hide was busy doing an eBird day list and we all got interested in what else was about. There were a couple of Great White Egrets, various assorted ducks including the much persecuted Duck That Must Not Be Named, the two Godwits, the Common Sandpiper and various Warblers which were being picked out at remarkable distances as they appeared in the reedbed near where the Marsh Sandpiper happened to be.

The Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) is a small wader that breeds in open grassy steppe and taiga wetlands from easternmost Europe to the Russian Far East. The majority of birds winter in Africa and India, with some migrating to Southeast Asia and Australia. They prefer to winter on fresh water wetlands such as swamps and lakes and are usually seen singly or in small groups. In terms of their UK rarity value, they were pretty rare with 146 records between 1950 and 2022. Scanning through the recent records there seem to be a few each year though in some years they are not recorded at all. From an Oxon perspective, there has only been one previous record which was a bird that was found in August 2007 in Abingdon before relocating to Farmoor the next day and then disappearing. So certainly a proper county Mega! With two birds in the country at the time, this was thought to be the one relocating from Devon

As I had a client session at 10 a.m. I eventually had to tear myself away so I walked back to the car in the company of a couple of other birders who were leaving at the same time. Then it was back towards Oxford and Casa Gnome with a great county Mega safely tucked into my belt. The bird briefly disappeared mid morning when a Marsh Harrier flushed it but was back again fairly soon. It stayed for the rest of the day but was gone the next morning. Despite that, the memory of a great bird will linger on for some time to come.