BIRDWATCH AT RSPB PULBOROUGH BROOKS

A Temminck's stint Calidris temminckii, a tiny wading bird on route from its northerly breeding grounds to its wintering sites in tropical Africa, has been present on the reserve and has been testing the skills and the patience of the local birders.

Only a very few Temminck's stints appear in Sussex each year, and they are generally unobtrusive, often appearing on small wetland sites for a few days usually in August and September. In some years the bird is not recorded at all in the county.

'Stint' is the name given to very small waders '“ nothing scientific, they are just tiny members of the sandpiper family. And when I say tiny, I mean tiny; they are only the size of a robin or great tit. Dunlins, our most common small wintering and passage wader, and to which other rarer waders are often compared to, are a third bigger and about the size of a starling.

Being such a small bird, seeing it from one of the hides has been something of a challenge as it can easily be obscured from view by other birds, bits of vegetation, cow dung, moulted goose feathers and pretty much anything else more than about 3 inches high. This birds' habit of walking up a ditch edge out of sight from the hides has been particularly vexing.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette September 12