If you’d asked me which rare bird I might see in Somerset in early January, the least sandpiper would have been very low on my list. Yet on a fine, bright, chilly morning here it was: running along the edge of the water like a clockwork toy, probing the mud for food with its stubby bill.
This species is well-named. It is the world’s smallest wading bird, just 13-15cm long and weighing less than 30 grams – about the same as a house sparrow. Even its scientific name, minutilla, is Latin for “very small”. Standing next to a dunlin and a teal, it made them look enormous.
The least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) is a new world species, breeding in Alaska and Arctic Canada, before heading south to overwinter in warmer climes, from the southern states of the US to Brazil. In Britain they are a rare vagrant, with fewer than 100 sightings recorded, virtually all in autumn.
This bird almost certainly crossed the Atlantic a few months ago, but was not discovered until early January when a couple of sharp-eyed local birders at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s Steart Marshes reserve spotted it.
As the first county record, it attracted a good crowd, making for a pleasant new year’s social event. A fine example of how birds occasionally turn up when we least expect them, to our surprise, joy and delight.
