The benefit of hindsight

The Temminck's Stint which overwintered at Pulborough Brooks last year was a much talked about and much enjoyed bird, being the first wintering record in Sussex since the mid-1970s. It became a regular feature of my patch visits from December to March but was sadly never seen again after the 'Beast From The East' so presumably it either perished or was wise enough to fly further south to escape the weather.

News of the bird broke on Saturday 9th December 2017 when Pulborough regular Alan Baker clinched the ID with good views from West Mead hide and called it in to a somewhat incredulous operator at one of the bird news services. There has, however, recently been some discussion between Alan, me and the county recorder, Mark Mallalieu, as to exactly when this bird actually arrived on site. The confusion has arisen thanks to there also being a Little Stint recorded on a number of occasions during November and Mark is, understandably, keen to clarify exactly when the Temminck's arrived and the Little did a bunk.

Alan reported seeing a Stint from the Hanger towards the end of November which flew off before he and others present could get a decent look at it, but his general impression was that it wasn't the Little Stint. I actually saw the Temminck's on the morning of the 9th but distantly from Winpenny and foolishly assumed it to be the Little again. I do remember noting that the bird seemed rather skulkier and browner on the back than I would have expected for Little Stint but having not seen either species so late in the year before I'm pretty unfamiliar with their winter plumages. Indeed, prior to the Pulborough Temminck's I had only seen one before, a summer plumage bird at Tice's Meadow in Surrey back in May 2013.

After further queries from Mark I revisted some shaky phonescope footage I took of a Stint, again distantly from Winpenny on the 25th, which at the time I again assumed was Little, but having studied it further and with the benefit of hindsight I am now of the opinion that this was in fact the first confirmed sighting of the Temminck's - and Mark agrees.

This is one of those valuable lessons in birding. I knew when I moved down to Sussex and started patchwatching Pulborough that waders were not my strongest subject and a winter plumage Temminck's Stint in totally the wrong part of the world in December was a pretty good curveball for the birding gods to throw at me in my first year here. Of course, what I ought to have done, in this era of social media and instant messaging, was to share the videos with people and got some second opinions at the time - which is precisely what I'll do if something like this happens again. That's one of the things I love about birding though - we're always learning!