On 31 October 1851, Lord Willoughby de Broke (probably Henry Peyto-Verney, 16th Baron Willoughby de Broke; possibly Robert John Verney, 17th Baron, who succeeded in 1852) shot a bird on his estate at Compton Verney, Warwickshire. He apparently related to Robert Fisher Tomes, author of the ‘Birds’ chapter of the Victoria County History of Warwickshire, that it had alighted in the middle of a stubble field and permitted a near approach
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Well, that's one version. According to Philip Palmer, the dead bird was received on that date, by Hugh Reid, a Doncaster taxidermist, from a Mr R. T. Barnard of Kirton Hall near Warwick. The next month, he sent a description to William Yarrell, saying that the shooter had found it so far inland sitting on a bean-stubble, and in a place where to which there is no water
. Yarrell was unable to identify the bird. Palmer says that Reid was advised by a Mr A. G. More, in February 1854, to refer to American Ornithology (presumably the nine-volume work (1808–1814), by Alexander Wilson) and then identified the species as Bartram's Sandpiper— what we now know as the Upland Sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda. Only then, says Palmer, was the specimen added to the collection of Lord Willoughby de Broke. Palmer cites as his references Montagu's Dictionary of Birds (1862, p. 280) and Zoologist (1852, 3330 and 1854, 4554).
Whoever found and shot it, the bird was a first for Britain and Ireland, and is now in the Worcester City Museum 
, Foregate Street, Worcester WR1 1DT. The specimen has the accession number “BB 58/3/1” and carries a label stating:
Presented by Lord Willoughby de Broke
Shot on the estate in October 1851 at Compton Verney
It is in a poor state of repair and the museum are considering applying for funding for its restoration. It is not on public display. Staff at the museum speculate that the Sandpiper may have been among the specimens donated by the aforesaid Robert Fisher Tomes, in 1907.
Our former Hon. Secretary and President, Tony Norris, was told by the curator of the old Warwick Museum (where, presumably, the bird had also resided) that … the county's most valued bird was on one occasion put with a pile of so-called rubbish for disposal. Fortunately, [the curator] recognised the interest of the specimen and saved it
. Norris also recorded (as did Tomes) that The bird is much lighter in colour and less strongly marked than most specimens though this may well be due in part to fading of the pigment
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Upland Sandpipers breed on open grasslands and fields across central North America and Alaska, where their choice of habitat leads to them being known as the “shorebird of the prairie”. Being long distance migrants, they winter in South America. Like our Redshank, they often perch on posts or walls. Their range and numbers are declining, probably due to over-hunting (its flesh is said to be both a delicacy, and to have aphrodisiac qualities!) and habitat fragmentation. In the USA, it is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, of 1918.
William Bartram was an American naturalist who, in the late 1700s, compiled the most complete list of American birds up to that time. From 1802, Bartram also taught ornithology and natural history illustration to Alexander Wilson (see above) and was Wilson who named the bird Bartram's Sandpiper in honour of his mentor, writing in volume 7 (published in 1813) of American Ornithology:
This bird being, as far as I can discover, a new species, undescribed by any former author, I have honoured it with the name of my very worthy friend, near whose botanic gardens, on the banks of the river Schuylkill, I first found it.
The species was classified Tringa longicauda by Johann Matthäus Bechstein, in 1812. In 1831, however, René-Primevère Lesson established a new genus name for it, Bartramia, thus perpetuating Wilson's wish to honour Bartram. It has also been referred to as Actiturus bartramius, Totanus bartramius and, by Wilson, as Tringa bartramia.
It has also been known, misleadingly, as the Mexican Plover (from its wintering area), even though it is not a member of the Plover family. Other names have included Upland Plover, Bartram's Plover, Field Plover, Highland Plover, Pasture Plover, Grass Plover, Bartramian Sandpiper, Bartramian Tatler, Uplander, Bill-bird, Prairie Pigeon, Prairie Snipe and Quaily. In southern Louisiana, it has the French name of ‘papabotte’, which may be an onomatopoeic representation of the bird's call.
There have been (up to 2002) a further 43 verified British sightings, mostly from Cornwall, The Isles of Scilly and South Wales, with a few in Scotland, but none in our region.
(includes Macromedia Flash format sound file)Andy Mabbett
September 2006
Thanks to Garston Phillips at Worcester City Museum for his assistance and for allowing me to examine the stuffed bird;
and to Bob Gress, Director of the Great Plains Nature Center in Kansas, USA, for permission to use his photograph.
Ornithology in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire & the West Midlands county, since 1929.
Fetched from http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/firsts/UPLSA.htm on Saturday 17 May 2008 03:54:56
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