Dee Estuary Birding

On September 22nd 1960 there were 350 Little Stints at Shotton Lagoons here on the Dee Estuary (Ref 1); that is still the highest count ever recorded in the British Isles. This was during an unprecedented influx of Little Stints into the UK with total numbers probably well in excess of 3,000 (Ref 2). 1996 was the next really big influx, we didn't have such large numbers here that year but nearby Frodsham Marsh had the highest count in the country with 250 - 300 on September 29th. We couldn't match that but still had some impressive flocks and I quote from the 1996 Cheshire and Wirral Bird Report:

"On the Dee 16 were at Heswall on Sept 23rd and 39 on 26th; max at Inner Marsh Farm were 22 on Sept 26th, (when 11 were also at Boathouse Flash), and 14 in Oct; Denhall Marsh often held birds in the first half of Oct, max 40+ on 7th."

Most years numbers peak in September when the juveniles pass through, as demonstrated in the bar chart below. Very much  like Curlew Sandpipers the young tend to follow the coastline whereas the adults fly overland. We get large numbers of juveniles here when they've had a good breeding season combined with an easterly wind which diverts them west from the more direct route along the North Sea coasts.

The spring passage is always much smaller with just the odd one or two adults spotted on their way north. The small number we do see usually pass through in May, June records are very scarce so it was good to see three at Meols this year on June 11th, 2024. To me that seemed a very late date and my first thought was that these must be non-breeders. But a quick look at my BWP (Ref 3) revealed that Little Stints don't start laying eggs until the last week in June so these three still had plenty of time to fly to the high arctic in northern Norway, or even further east to Siberia.  Incidentally, there has only been one other June record this century on the Dee Estuary, that was six at Burton Mere Wetlands (BMW) in 2006 - also on June 11th. Birds passing through so late are probably ones which spent the winter far to the south - many spend the winter as far as South Africa which means they fly as much as 12,000 km to reach their Siberian breeding grounds, an incredible feat for such a tiny wader (Ref 4)!

The second bar chart (below) shows the sum of monthly max for each year this century. Although not as many birds were involved as 1960 or 1996 the influx in 2001 made it another exceptional September. One thing about these large influxes is that they tend to be concentrated over just a few days and in 2001 20 were on Burton Marsh on Sep 22nd and 23 at Inner Marsh Farm on Sep 25th and 26th and that was about it.

After 2001 numbers have been much lower and the bar chart shows no obvious trend which is probably what we would expect as we are on the extreme western edge of their range. But the current status of the European breeding population as a whole has been subject to some debate - Wetlands International reckoned, in 2012, that they were steadily increasing but that the confidence in the data was low (Ref 5). However, a more recent study, at Ottenby Bird Observatory in southern Sweden, found a significant decrease (Ref 6).

Where to see Little Stints

Little Stints can be found just about anywhere - on sandy beaches on our Liverpool Bay coasts, on thick mud inside the estuary or at freshwater sites such as BMW. And it is BMW which has more records than anywhere else and notable counts in recent years include 10 in September 2017 and six as recently as September 2023. They've also had over wintering birds there with singles present throughout the winters of 2017/18 and 2021/22. High tide at Hoylake in September can result in really close views, they are nearly always with Dunlins and, if we're lucky, Curlew Sandpipers. But remember that, even in September, they are likely to be very scarce and you will need some luck to see one!

References

1. T. Hedley Bell, The Birds of Cheshire, 1962.

2. British Birds 53: 532 (Recent Reports and News - 1960).

3. Birds of the Western Paleartic app. NatureGuides Ltd, 2020.

4. Ed Stubbs, "Small Wonder", Birdwatch magazine 387 (September 2024).

5. Wetlands International, Waterbird Population Estimates (Fifth edition), 2012.

6. J. Waldenstron et al. , Long-term trends in abundance...... of Little Stints during autumn migration in southern Sweden, Ornis Svecica 33: 30 - 48.

Note that Dee Estuary Little Stint records for this article came from various sources including this website (www.deestuary.co.uk), Cheshire and Wirral Bird Reports (CAWOS)  and Clwyd/North-east Wales Bird Reports.

Richard Smith