Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
Winter distribution change
Regular passage migrant has bred, rare in winter when most travel to Africa
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
Atlas species lists
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More Common Sandpiper maps
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More maps for this atlas
Map explanation
This map shows the changes which occurred in the winter distribution of the species between 1995-2000 and 2007-2012, but only in the limited selection of tetrads that were surveyed in winter for Birds of Wiltshire (Wiltshire Ornithological Society 2007).
Key
Status
Nos tetrads
Absent to present
4
1%
Present in both
0
0%
Present to absent
0
0%
Not surveyed
Common Sandpipers breed in mainly upland freshwater habitats in a vast area including most of Europe and across Asia to Kamchatka and Japan. In Britain they nest in Scotland, northwest England and Wales, and sporadically in a dozen or so counties further south in England. Strongly migratory, they mostly winter throughout sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia through to Australia. A small, but apparently increasing, number remain in western Europe throughout the winter, including in Britain and Ireland: the 1981-84 Winter Atlas estimated the British and Irish winter population at about 100 birds, divided equally between those on estuaries and those at inland sites. Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded a 33% increase in the winter population since 1984.
In Wiltshire, it had long been suspected that they breed, with apparently established pairs regularly seen in the summer months, but nests have never been found. Confirmed evidence of breeding finally came in July 1980 when an adult was seen with two downy young at Langford Lakes. This remains the only positive breeding record for the county.
Migrating Common Sandpipers are regularly recorded on passage north between March and early June and on passage south between late June and October. In the period between 2000 and 2009 Hobby recorded them annually at an average of around ten or eleven Wiltshire sites during both the spring and autumn migration. Most of these records were from well-visited sites and the total almost certainly understates the total numbers passing through the county: Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded their presence in 58 tetrads during the summer.
There were only a couple of passing references to Common Sandpipers seen in Wiltshire in winter prior to 1975 but since then they have been noted in more than half of the winters. Bird Atlas 2007-2011 recorded them present in winter in six different Wiltshire locations.
References
The following references are used throughout these species accounts, in the abbreviated form given in quotation marks:
“1968-72 Breeding Atlas” – Sharrack, J.T.R. 1976: The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1981-84 Winter Atlas” – Lack, P.C. 1986: The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1988-91 Breeding Atlas” – Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993: The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-91. T. & A. Poyser
“Birds of Wiltshire” – Ferguson-Lees, I.J. et al. 2007 : Birds of Wiltshire, published by the tetrad atlas group of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society after mapping fieldwork 1995-2000. Wiltshire Ornithological Society.
“Bird Atlas 2007-2011” – Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann, R.L., Downie, I.S. and Fuller, R.J. 2013: Bird Atlas 2007-2011: the Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland
“WTA2” – ("Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2 ") the present electronic publication, bringing together the Wiltshire data from “Birds of Wiltshire” and “Bird Atlas 2007-11”, together with data from further fieldwork carried out in 2011 and 2012.
"Hobby" - the annual bird report of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society.