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Home , Caspian plover, Charadrius, Greater sand plover, Oriental plover, Plover

Greater Sand : new to Britain and Ireland A R. Kitson, B. A. E. Man andR. F. Porter

n 9th December 1978, a plover was found on the mudflats of OPagham Harbour, West Sussex. At first, it was considered to be a C. alexandrinus, but BAEM, when shown the in failing afternoon light, realised that it was too big for that species, and the possibility of a sand plover occurred to him. We went to the site the following morning and located it in a tidal creek running through saltmarsh. At a range of about 120m, through 25 X 'scopes in fairly good light, ARK and RFP soon considered it to be a C. leschenaultii, both having experience of the species from abroad. But, aware of the similarity of C. mongolus, which RFP had seen in Baluchistan in 1972 and BAEM in in 1977, we watched the bird until sure of its relative size, size of bill and length of legs; finally, it called, leaving us in no doubt that it was indeed a Greater Sand Plover, the first for Britain and Ireland. The Greater Sand Plover was watched for one hour and 40 minutes on 10th December before it flew out to the centre of the harbour and was lost to sight. It turned up again the next day and thereafter daily until 1 st January 1979, when it was last seen. During its stay, it showed great site-fidelity, almost always frequenting the same creek at low tide at the northwest corner of the harbour near Sidlesham Ferry. Over the period, it gradually

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[Brit. ?:S; 568-573, December 19801 Greater Sand Plover: new to Britain and Ireland 569 came farther up the creek, closer to the sea-wall, allowing observation from as little as 6m in the end, and was seen by well over 1,000 observers. It was twice seen roosting with other (Dunlin Calidris alpina, Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula and Turnstone Arenaria interpres) at high tide on a shingle spit in the southwest of the harbour at Church Norton. Photographs were taken at its more confiding stage (plates 278-280). Towards the end of its stay, it showed signs of succumbing to the freezing weather, and by 1st January it appeared moribund. When it could not be found thereafter it was thought likely that it had died.

278-280. Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii (from colour transparencies: C. R. Janman): 278 early December 1978 in dull light, dark scapulars heightening paleness of coverts; 279 & 280 January 1979 in bright light, dark scapulars not evident, bill looking large in 279 but foreshortened in 280

Description First impressions were of a typical plover in shape and actions, with similar to female Kentish Plover, but larger than Ringed Plover, about the size of Turnstone, and with rather long legs (which were not black) and strikingly heavy black bill. The following more detailed description was obtained: 570 Greater Sand Plover: new to Britain and Ireland SIZE & SHAPE Compared directly with eye and over ear-coverts as buffish-white Redshank Tringa totanus, Spotted Redshank flash. Crown feathers with minute pale buff 7*. erythropus, squatarola,fringes . Nape slightly paler and sandier than Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica, Oyster- crown and mantle. Lores and ear-coverts catcher Haematopus ostralegus, Ringed Ploverdun , joined under eye, about same colour as and Dunlin: larger than last two, smaller crown, though appearing darker with dis• than the other species, and thought to be tance and at acute angles, clearly demar• about size of Turnstone, or perhaps very cated from white of chin and cheeks, the slightly smaller. Against Ringed Plover, latter continuing onto sides of neck as partial clearly larger, by about 25%: longer, taller, collar, UPPERPARTS Back dun. Rump dun plumper, more barrel-chested. Shape like with whitish sides, UPPERWING Two-tone: Kentish Plover, but legs proportionally pale coverts, dark primaries and secondaries. longer. Head typically sunk into shoulders, Lesser, median and greater coverts buffy, presenting squat, neckless appearance, slightly paler than back, with small dun although occasionally neck extended. Crown centres. Tertials dun fringed buff. Primaries domed, peaking just behind eye. Wings and and secondaries dark brown. In flight, tail seemed to come to common point, showed fairly conspicuous wing-bar, ex• although photographs indicate that wing tips tending along base of secondaries and may have fractionally over-reached tail tip. broadening onto base of inner primaries. Legs long in comparison with Ringed Plover. Scapulars dun, appearing on 10th December On 23rd December, seen side by side with marginally darker than back and darker than Dunlin and legs judged to be 1 Vi times length neighbouring coverts (plate 278), presenting of the Dunlin's, which, taking average a barely discernible V from behind, but Dunlin tarsus measurement as 25 mm appearing on subsequent dates (in brighter (Prater el at. 1977), gives absolute tarsus light) to be concolorous with back (plate length of 37.5mm (within the range for 279). UNDERWING White, UNDERPARTS Dun Greater but outside that for Lesser Sand pectoral patches, neat and rather square-cut, Plover: Prater et al. 1977). In flight, feet joined across upper breast by barely per• projected fractionally beyond tail tip. Bill ceptible line. Rest of underparts white, TAIL conspicuously large: longer and deeper than Dun, darker sub-terminally, with whitish Ringed Plover's. Length of bill estimated to outer feathers and sides of uppertail-coverts, equal the distance from base of bill to behind latter running into whitish sides of rump. eye, about % of head-length. Bill deep, (These features were not observed clearly in particularly at base, running to blunt point the field, but show on a photograph by C. R. and usually appearing cleanly dagger- Janman.) BARE PARTS Legs greyish flesh or shaped, but, at some angles, indication of greenish flesh, fairly pale (even paler than distended gonys. HEAD Forehead and those of juvenile Ringed Plover alongside). supraloral area white, merging through pale Eye appeared black. Bill black, CALL Heard buff to dun-coloured crown. The white and several times in flight: a short, dry trilling, pale buff continued backwards over eye in usually repeated twice, 'prrr prrr' or 'trrrt very narrow supercilium (so narrow that trrrt', reminiscent of Turnstone. overlooked initially), widening again behind

Fig. 1. Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii, West Sussex, December 1978/January 1979 (A. R. Kitson) Greater Sand Plover: new to Britain and Ireland 571

Behaviour The Greater Sand Plover frequented the higher, drier parts of a muddy creek which was partly covered with an alga Enteromorpha and which ran through a saltmarsh of cord-grass Spartina and sea-purslane Halimione portulacoides, bordered by glasswort Salicornia. It often stood motionless for several minutes at a time, but was often also seen feeding, stopping, starting and pecking at the surface of the mud in typical plover fashion. It evidently found no shortage of food in the early days and was noted to catch ragworms (Nereidae) on several occasions, a tiny crab (Decapoda), and other unidentifiable items. The ragworms were usually washed in the tidal stream at the bottom of the creek: the Greater Sand Plover, having taken one in its beak, would run rapidly down to the water's edge and dunk it vigorously a few times before swallowing it. When walking or running (which it did with long, fast steps and horizontal carriage) it was noted to wag its tail-end slightly. It was seen occasionally in flight, when disturbed by, for instance, an aggressive Grey Plover or a Grey Heron Ardea cinerea. Identification The Greater Sand Plover is a member of a group of five Palearctic in the genus Charadrius which share certain structural and plumage characters, among them a red breast-band in summer plumage (Nielsen 1975). Between us, we have seen all of the four others: Lesser Sand Plover, C. asiaticus, C. veredus and Dotterel C. morinellus. The Pagham bird was at no time considered to be a Dotterel (which has, for example, an extensive breast-band broken by a white crescent), or a Caspian Plover, or an Oriental Plover (which have, besides other features, a more attenuated build, strong supercilia, much reduced wing-bars and brown underwings), and the only problem lay in elimination of Lesser Sand Plover. At the time, all of us knew Greater Sand Plover and two of us had seen Lesser. Since then, we have all gained fresh experience of Greater (ARK as soon as March 1979 in Turkey), and two of us (BAEM and RFP) have seen Lesser (January 1980 in Thailand). Drawing on these experiences, and referring to the literature, we are able to qualify the identification of the Pagham individual as Greater rather than Lesser Sand Plover, based on the following criteria: (i) Size Greater is larger than Lesser in all respects, there being virtually no overlap in measurements (Prater et al. 1977), although there is a cline in size of Lessers, those from the eastern part of the range being largest and those from the western part being smallest. A similar cline occurs in Greater.. Notwithstanding, most Lessers are barely larger in bulk than Ringed Plover, whereas Greater is considerably larger. We judged the Pagham bird to be 25% larger than Ringed Plover: a size expected for Greater, but not for Lesser. (ii) Tarsus As stated above, the observed tarsus length is in agreement with Greater, not Lesser. (iii) Bill Our estimation of the bill length as equal to the distance from its base to behind the eye is in accord with that of Greater, whereas the bill of 572 Greater Sand Plover: new to Britain and Ireland Lesser is equal in length to the distance from base of bill to the eye (Sinclair & Nicholls 1980). The great depth of the bill, particularly at the base, also fits Greater, not Lesser. (iv) Ear-coverts Sinclair & Nicholls (1980) stated that 'Lesser sometimes shows a darker, contrasting feathering from just in front of and below the eye and extending back to include the ear-coverts; Greater never shows this character.' We have been unable to verify this. Greater Sand Plovers (including the Pagham bird) have lores and ear-coverts which look darker than the crown—even blackish, at a distance and at acute angles— whereas, at close range, these areas usually become concolorous with the crown, or very nearly so. The illusion is probably due to the dominating large black bill and eye. (v) Tail We have not noticed a difference in the tail pattern of the two species, but P.J. Hayman (1978), in his meticulous paintings, depicted Greater with more white on the sides of the tail than Lesser. A photograph of the Pagham bird by C. R. Janman shows a tail pattern similar to that of Greater, not Lesser. (vi) Call We unfortunately do not know the call of Lesser Sand Plover. Sinclair & Nicholls (1980) likened it to that of a Turnstone, while merely mentioning that Greater 'utters a trill'. We know the call of Greater well and have repeatedly likened it to that of a Turnstone. One of us (ARK), in Mongolia in August 1979, also likened Greater's call to that of a Curlew Calidris ferruginea. The call we heard from the Pagham bird was the call we have learned to associate with Greater Sand Plover.

Ageing Greater Sand Plovers may be aged by the extent of pale fringing on their wing-coverts (Prater et al. 1977): adults in winter plumage have narrow and relatively inconspicuous pale fringes to their coverts; juveniles have broad buff fringes to all their coverts, some of which are retained into first-winter plumage. Since the Pagham bird had all its coverts fringed buff, collectively forming a panel which was pale relative to the mantle, particularly noticeable in the early part of its visit, it was most probably a first-winter.

Distribution Greater Sand Plover is a monotypic species which breeds on dry steppes in west and central , east from Armenia through Transcaspia and Kazakhstan to eastern Mongolia; the continuum is broken midway by the Altai. In the last two decades, breeding has also been confirmed in Afghanistan, Jordan and Turkey (Nielsen 1971), which, taken in context with the increasing number of occurrences of individuals in , suggests a possible southwesterly expansion of its range. It has a very large winter range, from the coasts of South Africa, East Africa, the Red Sea, the eastern Mediterranean, the coast of Arabia, the Persian Gulf, , Indo- , Australia, Greater and Lesser Sundas, and Micronesia to the Solomons (Nielsen 1971). It occurs on migration in , Korea and Japan (Vaurie 1965). Greater Sand Plover: new to Britain and Ireland 573 There are at least 18 European records, involving at least 24 individuals, all since 1900 and six since 1970: Greece five (Watson 1961; Bauer et al. 1969), Malta four (Sultana et al. 1975, Sultana in litt.), Bulgaria (has occurred, but no details known: S. Cramp in litt.), Poland two (Glutz et al. 1975, S. Cramp in litt.), East Germany one, Belgium two (Glutz etal. 1975), the Netherlands one (de Heer 1979) and Sweden three (SOF 1978). July and September have been the favoured months.

Acknowledgments We wish to thank the following people: Chris Janman for supplying photographs, Tim Parmenter for processing photographs, Stanley Cramp for references to the European records and J. Sultana for details of the Maltese birds and photographs of specimens. References BAUER, W., VON HELVERSEN, O., HODGE, M., & MARTENS, J. 1969. Catalogus Faunae Graeciae. Part 2. Aves. Thessalonika. GLUTZ VON BLOTZHEIM, U. N., BAUER, K. M., & BEZZEL, E. 1975. Handbuch der Vbgel Mitteleuropas. Band 6. Wiesbaden. HAYMAN, P. 1978. In GOODERS, J. The Encyclopaedia of Birds. No. 32. Feltham. DE HEER, P. 1979. Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii in the Netherlands. Dutch Birding 2 & 3: 56. NIELSEN, B. P. 1971. Migration and Relationships of four Asiatic Plovers Charadriinae. Ornis Scand.2: 137-142. 1975. Affinities ot'Eudromias morinellus (L.) to the genus Charadrius L. Ornis Scand. 6:65-82. PRATER, A. J., MARCHANT, J. H., & VUORINEN, J. 1977. Guide to the Identification and Ageing of Holarctic Waders. BTO Guide 17. Tring. SINCLAIR, J. C, & NICHOLLS, G. H. 1980. Winter identification of Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers. Brit. Birds 73: 206-213. SULTANA, J., GAUCI, C, & BEAMAN, M. 1975. Birds of Malta. Malta. SVERIGES ORNITOLOGISKA FORENING. 1978. Sveriges Fdglar. Stockholm. VAURIE, C. 1965. The Birds of the Palearctic Fauna. Non Passeriformes. London. WATSON, G. E. 1961. Aegean bird notes including two breeding records new to Europe. J. Orn. 102:301-307. A. R. Kitson, 12Hillside Terrace, Steyning, Sussex R. F. Porter, c/o RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG192DL B. A. E. Man, 40 Bardsley Close, Croydon, Surrey