Greenshank
Reports
On Thursday 14 August, Arthur Duncan took this excellent photo of a Greenshank on the shore at Cordon. He thought that he had had a glimpse of it at first light earlier in the day and was delighted to confirm the sighting with this photograph taken in the evening. I was delighted that he shared it with me. It was only the second record in this late summer/autumn period and only the fourth record for the year. Last year Arran had only two records all year and now Arthur got two sightings in the one day plus a stunning photograph.
Greenshank is an uncommon passage migrant and occasional winter visitor to Arran. In the last five years twenty-nine records have been shared with me and in the last ten years eighty records have been shared with me.
Greenshank is a medium-sized elegant wader with a dark grey back and white underparts. Its green legs and slightly up-turned bill help to distinguish it from other waders. It is most often picked up in wetlands and coastal areas on autumn passage by its distinctive three-note call. The Greenshank feeds in shallow waters, often chasing small invertebrates and fish, which it hunts by sight.
Its breeding range is from Scotland and Fennoscandia, eastwards across the taiga zone of northern Europe and Siberia as far as Kamchatka. It migrates to winter in other parts of the British Isles, western and southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australasia.
In Scotland breeding is most closely associated with areas of high rainfall and poorly drained acidic peat soils like the extensive blanket bog of the Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland. Much is known about Greenshank breeding behaviour thanks to a classic study by Desmond Nethersole-Thompson, which was carried out in the Flow Country. Territories usually include a large rock or dead tree as song-post.
On Arran it is from mid-July to late-September, as individuals migrate south to their wintering grounds in the west of Africa, that they are most likely to be seen on Arran, although occasionally one will over-winter.