Fylde

Juvenile pectoral sandpiper, Moss Side

I don't know about you but these days of alternating January and August are getting a bit confusing. Today started cloudy but promised sunny and, seeing as I spent yesterday sightseeing from the comfort of a surprisingly warm, dry train, I thought I should go for a wander. I wanted to give the boots one last outing before I sail them out to their final rest down the canal on a flaming longship.

Plan A was scuppered when I got news the birds had flown and it was too late for the simple connection to Carnforth to see if yesterday's ring-necked duck was still around. So I decided to try my luck with the pectoral sandpipers just outside Lytham. Partly because the location looked very doable by public transport, partly because I don't know that area at all, and partly because it would be nice to see a couple of pectoral sandpipers.

I got the Blackpool South train from Preston and got off at Moss Side. The reports had the sandpipers off Peg's Lane, which is about quarter of a mile down the road from the station so off I toddled. It's an easy walk: there's a footpath down one side of the road.

The hedges in the village were full of robins and great tits and there were dozens of woodpigeons and jackdaws in the fields. Just after the road turns South towards Saltcotes there's a little pond surrounded by trees and filled with the sound of mallards. The stubble field by the pond was busy with woodpigeons and feral pigeons, half of which took flight when a kestrel flew over.

Just before Peg's Lane I got to a field of cattle. There were a few dips and hollows where big muddy puddles had accumulated so I decided to have a look for any wagtails before moseying down the lane for the waders. There weren't any but I did notice a couple standing by the hedge further down the road staring at the same field through a telescope. I followed where they were looking and found one of the pectoral sandpipers, a quick scan to the left and there was the other.

Juvenile pectoral sandpiper, Moss Side

The problem with seeing these on their own was getting a sense of scale. The bright, pale shoulder braces reminded me of juvenile little stints then I started to wonder if I'd got the ID right. They looked just like little stints, except for the long bills and the streaky breasts and the yellow legs and… OK, they were pectoral sandpipers. I was hoping to get the sighting of a little stint as well as they've been reported from here and I've had no luck with them the past couple of years. And no luck today, either. I did have more luck finding three green sandpipers in the big puddle on the other side of the field.

I didn't see a lot of mileage in staying much longer so wandered back for the next train, which turned out to be going back to Preston. The train to Carnforth left Preston two minutes before we arrived and I didn't want to go straight home so I decided to get a bit of mileage from my old man's explorer ticket and went back the long way via Blackburn and Bolton.

A typical peculiarity of Autumn birdwatching when anything can be anywhere: two sandpipers that should be on their way to the Caribbean feeding in a puddle in a random field of cows in Lancashire.