Yesterday, the sun shone and the waders came close to the boardwalk hides at Mai Po
This tangle of Curlew Sandpipers were disturbed by a Peregrine. Not "disturbed" really; - more like "terrified".
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| Curlew Sandpipers - Calidris ferruginea |
I went out to the "New" hide and the rising tide was pushing the waders towards us. Actually, though, most birds veer off to the left as viewed from the hide.
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| Advancing waders viewed form the "New" hide, Mai Po |
There was a record high spring count of Bar-tailed Godwits over the weekend of April 11th/12th and many of these were still around yesterday (April 17th)
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| Bar-tailed Godwit - Limosa lapponica (menzbieri) |
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| Bar-tailed Godwit - Limosa lapponica (menzbieri) |
There were many Terek Sandpipers on the tideline, too.
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| Terek Sandpiper - Xenus cinereus |
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| Terek Sandpiper - Xenus cinereus |
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| Terek Sandpiper - Xenus cinereus |
It's one of those things that you can be looking at waders on a tideline and thinking that you've got them covered, but there are always odd birds coming and going. Such a bonus bird was this close Nordmann's that I didn't see arrive and it chose to depart about thirty seconds after I found it...
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| Nordmann's Greenshank - Tringa guttifer |
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| Nordmann's Greenshank - Tringa guttifer |
We're seeing a few Whimbrel now...
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| Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus |
Some non-waders showing themselves...
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| Yellow Wagtail - Motacilla flava (macronyx) |
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| Collared Crow - Corvus torquatus |
At the risk of belabouring a point, there really are a LOT of Curlew Sandpipers on the mudflats at Mai Po right now.
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| Curlew Sandpipers - Calidris ferruginea |
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Curlew Sandpipers - Calidris ferruginea
This a wider angle (less of a crop) - identical to the first shot on this post.
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The Spoon-billed Sandpiper (first seen Sunday 12th) has been seen on-and-off over the past few days, although only once by me personally. How long will it stay ?..... Watch this space !
How fabulous to see so many colourful Curlew Sandpipers. We keep hearing that their numbers are down. Some beautiful other images too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sonja. Curlew Sand is our most numerous wader, but they're all in trouble.
DeleteBrilliant stuff John, I'm really really jealous............................
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stu - I'd swap most for a Long-tailed Rosefinch, like your recent ones.
Deletei mirror Stuart's opinion. I just got myself a good camera and lens. I went with the Canon 6D instead of 7D Mark ll. I am starting to think that the 7D would have been a better choice although the 6D is very nice.
ReplyDeleteHi John, people here rate both those camera bodies highly !
DeleteAnother amazing selection of wader pics - please keep em' coming. Glad that at least one spoony is about, been quite a few years since I have seen one.
ReplyDeleteJeremy, as of Wednesday, 22nd April it had been around for 10 days - still a challenge to find, though.
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