Yesterday morning, I went to Mai Po with visiting birder and former colleague John Burton.
Earlier, I had received a message to the effect that Hong Kong's Autumn migrant Spoon-billed Sandpiper was gracing Ponds 16/17 in Mai Po Nature Reserve for the third day in a row. This seemed to augur well for a good morning's birding.
We stopped along the Access Road to the Nature Reserve to look at the waders on a drained fishpond….
and there IT was, quite close, pottering around with other small waders including Long-toed Stints and Little Ringed Plovers.
Although I hadn't heard, the Spoon-billed Sandpiper had flown off Pond 16/17 about twenty minutes earlier.
And there it was, only about 25 metres away. I had the 500mm lens and 1.4 converter in the car.
Thanks to digital and lots of cropping, here are some shots to show you.
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
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| Spoon-billed Sandpiper |
So there you have it, pure luck.
But, as Gary Player (the golfer) once said; - "The harder I practice, the luckier I get.."
Wonderful...................
ReplyDeleteWow! I envy you...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stu and Mun; - it's a great species and I hope that all the effort being made to save them is successful.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see a young juvenile taking on its very first migration. Still waiting for the first record for this autumn in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteWhen the young are alone like this, I wonder if they have any idea where they are going ? The other birds usually have some others of the same species to follow.
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