Lesser yellowlegs

04 Sunday Nov 2018

Tags

American bird, autumn migration, birding, birdwatching, Black-tailed godwit, British vagrant bird, Dunlin, Greenshank, Lesser yellowlegs, RSPB Lodmoor, Tringa flavipes

Its name says it all really – the Lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) is a slender wader, with long yellow legs, and the smudgy, less defined markings on the breast of this particular bird point to it being a juvenile.

181104 lesser yellowlegs (1)

The Lesser yellowlegs is native to the Americas, spending its summers breeding in the northern forests that lie between Alaska and Quebec and its winters on the United States’ Gulf coast and in parts of South America.

The birds we see here in Britain are vagrants, birds that have strayed or been blown off course during their migration. On average, about ten birds are seen in various parts of Britain each year and, amazingly, there was also a Lesser yellowlegs at RSPB Lodmoor when we visited during last year’s Portland trip

Two interesting facts about this bird from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website:

Both the male and female Lesser Yellowlegs provide parental care to the young, but the female tends to leave the breeding area before the chicks can fly, thus leaving the male to defend the young until fledging.

and …

The oldest recorded Lesser Yellowlegs was at least 4 years, 11 months old when it was found in South Dakota in 1965. It had been banded in the Lesser Antilles in 1960.

181104 lesser yellowlegs (6)

Back here in Dorset, it was great to get such close views of the Lodmoor Lesser yellowlegs and particularly to see it in close company firstly with two Greenshanks and a Black-tailed godwit (photo above), and then with the same two Greenshanks and a Dunlin (below). This really helped to see the relative differences in size, shape and plumage.

181104 lesser yellowlegs (7)

Heck, I even managed to get a short video of the lovely little thing. Enjoy!

Birding at RSPB Lodmoor

31 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds, nature

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Tags

birding, birdwatching, Black-tailed godwit, British birds, Greenshank, Lapwing, Lesser yellowlegs, Little egret, Lodmoor, RSPB Lodmoor, Ruff, Snipe, Teal

Oh to have somewhere like RSPB Lodmoor as my local birding patch! Its 76 hectares of wetlands and grasslands, saltmarsh and reed beds are home to a huge variety of birds and often attract passing rarities, plus it’s a lovely place to walk and all within a mile of Weymouth town centre.

181031 birding Lodmoor (1)

This was our second stop on the way to Portland last Friday. Our target bird was the Lesser yellowlegs – amazingly, a Lesser yellowlegs was also at Lodmoor when we went to Portland in 2017 – but there were many other lovely birds to be seen, and, as I was able to get reasonably good photos, some of these birds will be getting their own blog posts in the coming days. So, here are some tasters of what you can expect to see at this outstanding reserve.

181031 birding Lodmoor (2) 181031 birding Lodmoor (3)

Most of my photos of the Black-tailed godwits are like this first one – heads down, bottoms up – but I did manage to get some head shots.

181031 birding Lodmoor (4)

Just a few years ago Little egrets would have been a rare sight in Britain but not any more. They’re now well settled, breeding and frequently seen.

I love the colours in the Lapwings’ plumage. They look plain black and white from a distance but are, in fact, adorned in rich sumptuous greens. Such elegant birds.

181031 birding Lodmoor (7)

We saw several Snipe poking about in the mud for food.

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After the Canada geese, probably the second most abundant species of bird we saw was Teal, many of which were sheltering from the freezing wind behind clumps of reeds. If you look carefully, you can just see a Ruff in the centre near the reeds.

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The star of the Lodmoor show, the Lesser yellowlegs, seen here behind a Black-tailed godwit and to the left of 2 lovely Greenshanks. All three of these birds will be getting their own blog posts.

Birding at RSPB Lodmoor

19 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Canada goose, Great white egret, Kingfisher, Lesser yellowlegs, Mediterranean gull, RSPB Lodmoor, Teal, Tringa flavipes

171019 RSPB Lodmoor

On the way to Portland Bird Observatory last Friday we called in at the RSPB’s Lodmoor Reserve, just outside of Weymouth, to see if we could catch a glimpse of one of their rare visitors, a Lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), a bird that’s usually more at home in the Americas. Our views weren’t super clear – my photos were taken through tall grasses and bramble – but it was great to see one of these occasional visitors to Europe.

As well as the Lesser yellowlegs (and the Gadwall I blogged about earlier in the week), there was an abundance of other birdlife.

171019 Various birds

Large numbers of Canada geese flew in while we walked the trails, and there were numerous Teal and Tufted ducks.

171019 Canada geese

171019 Teal

A few Mediterranean as well as the more common gull species …

Ruff, Snipe, Little and Great white egrets puddled about in the lagoons; a very confiding Kingfisher posed for photos; two Marsh harriers glided over the distant reed beds; and a Spoonbill was a nice, though distant sighting. I recorded over 30 species of birds at Lodmoor and that was without walking right around the reserve.