Day 278 - Lovesomely Scintillating Little Stint

Hey everyone today's Day 278 and you will all know that I have been recently been to Norfolk on holiday. When I was there I went to some many places. Cley-Next-The-Sea, the Broads, Holt and Sherringham are just some of the places that we went to. One of my favourite places that we visited was Titchwell Marsh. When we were there we saw some birds that we had never seen before. The lovely Little Stint! Now I've just been through my photo's and I haven't got any that are any good - I must have had my camera stuck in macro mode as they were all blurred. So if anyone has a Little Stint photo or two I could borrow I'd be very grateful.

So, here are the facts:

• They only really pass through on the East and South of England. They are also found on the East of Ireland. 

• They somehow Winter somewhere in the UK, but not many, only 14 are found in the Winter but 460 do pass through.

• They breed in the north of Eurasia mainly and spend the winter in Africa and India.

• Even though there is only this small amount of birds in the UK, they are a Green Status! This is probably due to the large breeding size in Europe, 5,000 pairs - 500,000 pairs!

• I got Day 276's Dunlin mixed up with these birds, probably because the only difference is a Black stripe on the bottom of the front. 

• If you see Dunlins quite a lot then the chances are, you might have see a Stint. They, apparently feed quite a lot with Dunlins.

• Their diet is mainly made up of invertebrates that they find on the surface of the mudflats they visit.

• The first part of their Scientific name (Kalidris) means a Grey waterside bird described by Aristotle and the second part (minutus) means small.

• They are 13cm long with a 36cm wingpsan. Both Males and Females weigh 24g. Their ring size is either A2 or B2.

• There is so little information about these that there is no data about their first breeding age or their typical lifespan. The only data about their age is that the oldest recorded one was 3 years 11 months and 27 days, but that was in 1956... 

Here are some links to some more information:

RSPB - Little Stints

BTO Birdfacts - Little Stints

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.