Peterborough Bird Club :: Two American Golden Plovers in two days- A first and second for the Peterborough area

Peterborough Bird Club

Article featured in Limosa limosa, November 2006. No 91. © Will Bowell

On the evening of Thursday 5th October 2006, Steve Dudley found a juvenile American Golden Plover in a flock of 28 European Golden Plovers on Farcet Fen, during the last few minutes of light. It appeared a rain shower had brought the flock down but during the night it went clear for a few hours and there was no sign the following morning despite several locals searching the area.

With it being my birthday on Friday 6th, my Dad, Ray, had decided to have the day off and we were going to spend the day birding in Norfolk. The conditions were less than perfect for anything to turn up in Norfolk though and with news of a PBC first, we decided to make a dawn start at Farcet.

There was no sign of any European Golden Plovers during our fairly brief search with Mark Hawkes, Brian Stone, Tony Parker and of course Steve, so we decided to head back for breakfast and come back later in the day for a more intensive search.

After breakfast, we did Deeping Lakes, Deeping Highbank and Maxey GP. The former two sites yielded very little, but the juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper was still present at Maxey, though typically distant.

During the early afternoon we went back to Farcet Fen and gave the fields a good searching. There was still a distinct lack of Plover flocks and our search of the area between Farcet and Whittlesey wasn’t any better.

The onset of a heavy rainstorm and the general paucity of birds, let alone Plover flocks was beginning to depress, so we decided to call off our search for the American Golden Plover and head back to the Deepings and do another round of the local pits, to see what the rain had produced.

On our way to Deeping Lakes, we came across a large, mixed flock of Lapwings and Golden Plovers near Crowland Water tower, on Deeping Highbank; there didn’t seem any chance of Steve’s American Golden Plover being all the way up here, but these flocks are always worth scanning.

After a short while of scanning through the flock, which was in a field on the other side of the river, Dad decided we should carry onto Deepings Lakes. Just as he was getting in the car, I came across a good American Golden Plover candidate.

Dad agreed it looked completely different to the surrounding European Golden Plovers, being a more slender, greyer bird with an incredibly bright supercilium. Unfortunately the views were only from the back, but it seemed likely this would be Steve’s American Golden Plover. After phoning him and describing what I could see, he agreed the description sounded good for AGP. When he said “It should basically look like a small Grey Plover”, alarm bells rang- our bird didn’t look like that.

Steve was in a meeting and unable to assist, so in need of backup, I rang round the usual suspects, whilst on the phone to Martin Coates, the flock took off and by chance I managed to get it in the scope, whilst it was over the river. This gave me amazing views of the grey underwing and axillaries and provoked me to let out a lot of expletives down the phone. I still hadn't noticed any black blotches on the underbelly though, as I was concentrating on the underwing.

Once the flock settled again, they were slightly closer, so I went straight for the record shots, taking no notice of the underbelly. I managed one shocking record; despite my lack of experience with the species, I was sure this wasn’t what a juvenile should look like from the head alone, but it seemed unlikely an adult would turn up within 15 miles and 24 hours of a juvenile. I kept quiet, but did mildly hint to Mike Weedon and others that it now seemed unlikely this was Steve’s bird.

A slow trickle of local birders began to arrive, but unfortunately the vast majority of the flock weren’t visible, as they were tucked behind the bank. Mark Hawkes nearly instantly picked up an adult winter plumaged Dotterel when he arrived and by sitting on the top of his van, was able to see the American Golden Plover, which was apparently one of the closest birds to the bank.

Eventually the flock shifted out into the middle of the field and the assembled birders, which now included several out-of-area twitchers, got good, but distant views of the bird. The remaining black markings on the underbelly, from summer plumage, made it obvious this bird was in actual fact an adult, moulting, American Golden Plover and therefore not Steve’s Farcet bird. Steve Dudley arrived later on and confirmed this was a different bird to his own and therefore a nice birthday self-found tick for me.

Two American Golden Plovers in two days

A first and second for the Peterborough area

American Golden Plover, Deeping Highbank, 7th October 2006. © Mike Weedon

The above record shot was taken at great range by Mike Weedon, but depicts nicely the contrasting, grey, golden, black spangling on the upper parts, as well as the very obvious supercilium and remains of summer plumage on the underparts.

Two other top PBC listers managed to catch up with the bird before dusk on the 6th- Trevor Williams and Josh Jones, whilst the area’s top lister, Martin Coates, had to wait till the next morning, when Bob and Sue Titman also caught up with it. The bird ranged quite heavily during the weekend and was relocated several miles north by Brian Stone when he returned from Cornwall on Monday 9th, when it showed extremely well.

The above two shots are the best that have been taken of this individual so far, as it showed well in a large flock of European Golden Plovers and Lapwings, in a field by the high bank. Despite making a disappearance shortly after these shots were taken, the bird returned to roost on a field at TF233135 at dusk (per RBA), which is where it was observed at dusk on the 7th as well (Will Bowell, Gareth Jones, Josh Jones and Helen Wilson).

On the morning of the 9th, Richard Thomas refound the Farcet Fen bird at Fen Drayton, where it was present for an apparent one day only also. The Deeping Highbank bird was present until the 9th at least, but no negative news came through on the 10th so the bird could still be out there, just not being looked for.

The Farcet Fen/Fen Drayton bird represents the 6th record for Cambridgeshire and the first juvenile. The Deeping Highbank bird is the 14th record for Lincolnshire and may relate to another adult seen in north Lincolnshire a week earlier. Both records make up the first and second respectively, for the Peterborough Bird Club recording area.

Will Bowell, 10th October 2006.