Sunday 11 May 2014

'Arctica' Dunlin


Came across a post recently on birding frontiers about Dunlin sub-species identification ( Dunlin ssp id)  and reminded me of a bird we had at Beddington in 2004 (notebook extract above).The Beddington bird was in a group of 49 Dunlins in early May. Birds moving north that time of year are presumably the race schinzii which are travelling north from West Africa. However one of the birds within the flock was notably smaller appearing almost stint like, with finer streaking on the white breast, reduced black belly patch  and upperpart patterning which was more 'sanderling' like, We presumed it was of a difference race- presumably arctica . More from Birding Frontiers on arctica HERE.

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