western France Brittany coast 30/08 : Is this "just" a Dunlin ? (1 Viewer)

[buck mulligan]

Hello everybody


we came out of our swim in the sea to find this bird on the beach


It just didn't seem have the jizz of a Dunlin


we "saw" very long legs and bill... and generally just more slender and elegant


It was feeding very slowly mostly on the dry sand and walking away (not running) from us as we tried to take photos on our phones



I gave up the phone and got my binos


The belly was white with no black at all showing (despite what you see in the phone photos)

with a very clear demarcation with the buffy head and breast band but hey I was cold and tired after the swim so...


what do you think please

TIA
Buck

 

[Butty]

It's fine for dunlin (and a turnstone in pic 8) - apart from all the fancy patterning which your phone has invented. (My phone never does that! - what sort's yours?)

 

[buck mulligan]

Hi Butty

thanks for your rapid reply

the phone is a pixel



Buck

ps
in French a dunlin is a B. Variable

the clue must be in the name

 

[Butty]

Plumage is reasonably non-variable (apart from age/season, like any wader). (Geographical) variation is mainly in overall size and relative bill-length.
There have been a couple of other phone-photos containing weird unreal patterns submitted lately - I wonder if they were all Pixels. Of course I secretly hoped that it would be an iPhone so that I could have (yet another) reason to shun everything Apple... 😉

 

[buck mulligan]

The photos are very poor but in real life...

I thought curlew sandpiper but then ...

Thanks

 

[Butty]

Bill too straight, legs too short, upper body plumage wrong, no obvious supercilium, flanks marked. Stuff like that 😉

 

[buck mulligan]

Pretty much the difference we saw with a "dunlin"
Long legs long bill
Clearly marked crown
clear flancs...

The one that got away😥

 

[birdboybowley]

Remember Buck than Dunlins vary subspecifiaclly to a large and very annoying scale 😖😂

 

[buck mulligan]

Remember Buck than Dunlins vary subspecifiaclly to a large and very annoying scale 😖😂

Thanks for this and of course you are right

Both
for the ID and for annoying



Poor me 🤣

 

[buck mulligan]

Thanks for this and of course you are right

Both
for the ID and for annoying



Poor me 🤣

good news

today we went early and got just there just before the high tide
there were mixed groups of shore birds

Sanderling, Dunlin, Godwit...

in a group of Dunlin there were at least three which were more "elegant" than the others and without the "V" on the back and streaking only on the breast-sides and with an "orange" washed breast
but the confirmation came when they flew with an obvious white rump