Swinhoe's Plovers: new leg-flagged birds to look for!

Coming to a sandbar or mudflat near you? In addition to the one Thai flagged bird (black over green)and one flagged in Sumatra (orange over black), there are now 19 Swinhoe's Plovers sporting white over yellow flags to look out for  this coming migratory season!

The birds were trapped and flagged by Jonathan Martinez and Professor Fasheng Zou at Xitou beach, Guandong Province, China. The flags are on the left leg - the white flag is plain and triangular; the yellow flag is square-ended and engraved with 2 numbers.

If you are lucky enough to see one, please send the details - number, location with Google Earth ref, date - Jonathan at jonathmartinezATgmailDOTcom.

There's a very nice summary of the Swinhoe's Plover story to-date on Terry Townshend's 'mouthwateringly good' blog, here. 

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Martinez.

23 - 25 March 2012: Kapar power station. 6. Small stuff

These are mostly pics taken on the smaller ashpond roost. For the last few years, this was the main roost, but now that the pond is dry, it's mainly used by sand plovers and stints.


































In the late afternoon sun, the Greater Sand Plovers in breeding plumage looked stunning.

































At this time of year, the different moult timing of Greater and Lesser provide an additional clue to identification. On the whole, Greaters moult into breeding plumage about two months earlier than Lessers, so most birds in breeding plumage are Greaters and vice versa. On the other hand, leg colour at Kapar was of no use - all species showed yellowish legs - courtesy of the light-coloured mud they'd been wading in!





































It was hot out there!

































Exceptionally, some Greaters show a blackish border to the breast band - fewer than 1 in a thousand I would guess. I photographed a similar bird in April 2008.


















































It was interesting to see the variation in the amount of orange in the crown and upperpart plumage.


















I think this is probably a female.















I spent some time trying to find a 'mongolus' Lesser Sand Plover, recently mooted as a full species. This dark bird (left) with some smudginess on the fore flanks was the closest I came, but after some scrutiny I decided that it was still just a 'schaeferi'. I've yet to identify any other taxon of Lesser in Malaysia.




















While on the subject of plovers, here are a couple of big Grey Plovers from the big pond.
















When they're in breeding plumage, you can see why the Americans prefer to call them Black-bellied Plover.



















What do you make of this then?




































This should make it easier - a Broad-billed Sandpiper. You weren't thinking of that other 'billed Sandpiper' were you?


















Oh, and there was one nervous-looking Terek in the plover roost - this one really does have yellow legs!.























This is that other-billed sandpiper - Spoonie! (hopefully you can find it!). Looking for a Spoon-billed Sandpiper at Kapar is a truly herculean task - the birds are crammed together, milling about constantly, and sifting through hundreds of Red-necked Stints in the slim hope of scoring what is probably the only Spoon-billed Sandpiper for hundreds of miles is possibly one definition of obsession!






















You've got it now, right? Check out the unstreaked breast sides, white forehead and large head. Single birds have been recorded at Kapar in 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and now 2012. I wonder if perhaps there are just one or two individuals involved in all these sightings? If they survive to adulthood, Spoonies are known to be long-lived, so I think it's possible that this is the same bird coming back year after year to winter on the Klang Islands. It's sobering to think that this one bird could represent half a per cent of the world population now.


















The gap between this picture and the previous one hides an hour of tension - from the moment the bird slipped out of view behind another bird (with only me having seen it!) until we managed to locate it aqain right at the back of the flock as the clock ticked round to 7 pm. That exhausting period was spent with seven of us (we were joined by Ang) intensely scrutinizing every stint through scopes repeatedly. At times like this, even I would question whether wader-watching is 'fun'! Hard slog and eye-strain, more like!


















Fortunately this time the bird remained stationary, and more or less in view, for long enough for everyone to get least a fleeting view through my scope.

If you want to see a Spoon-billed Sandpiper, I would recommend going to Kok Kham in Thailand, but if you want the immense satisfaction of finding your own on home turf (along with the pain of spending hours and hours of fruitless searching!), then Kapar is, in my view, the ultimate testing ground! For better pics of perhaps the same bird, see here and here.

15th November 2011: Tanjung Tokong, Penang

I finally made time to go down to the Swinhoe's Plover site today - and the birds didn't disappoint - there were four present.



There's a bird just to the left of the post, on the water's edge.









Bird 1.



Bird 2.



Bird 3.







Bird 4.



I had a hard time trying to age these birds as they all seemed pretty worn. Eventually I managed to see that the bird with the brightest cap (on the left) was in primary moult and therefore must be an adult.



All the others showed uniform flight feathers and I therefore aged them as 1st winter birds.



A solitary minivet was flying around, so I had to check it out in case it was my second 'Swinhoe's' of the day - nope - just an Ashy!



The other highlight of the afternoon was a group of 8 Smooth Otters. I never managed to photograph them when every head was up, but 7 out of 8 ain't bad!

22 - 25 August, 2011: Pulau Tengah, Johore

Apologies for the long delay in publishing this post - I've been snowed under work-wise for the past month.

This was my second trip to the island, where Batu-Batu Resort and Wild Asia are working closely together to promote the study and protection of flora and fauna of this small island, located about 9km off Mersing. For more on the project and the island, see this post.

The main purpose of this visit was to see how intern/volunteers Jyun and Hakim have been getting on collecting baseline information on various aspects of the biodiversity of the island and surrounding area. It was still a bit early for passerine migrants, but returning waders were already in evidence.



A view looking at the north-east coastline. Plenty of cover for southward-moving migrants here!







A few more shots from around the island.



The Kraken awakes?






































Stunning beauty everywhere you look!



Even the fish 'heart' Pulau Tengah...!



...for infinity!



A Black-naped Tern in front of an approaching storm.





I spent the last morning at the north end of the island trying to photograph the Black-naped Terns there. The low morning light was challenging!



There was a single newly-fledged juvenile being attended by 2 adult birds, including the very abraded individual here.



The juvenile had short, rounded wings, and reminded me of a Little Gull in flight.



The blood vessels in the wing showed pink as the sunlight shone through the wings.






















One of the adults showed up with a fish, but was it for the chick or its mate?



The other adult didn't believe in queuing!



In pole position!



This time the juvenile had to wait. Well, they say the best way to love your kids is to show them you love your spouse!



After the fish was exchanged the giver engaged in some sky-pointing, courtship behaviour associated with several birds such as terns and boobies.









A few more terns.



An interesting rock near the terns. It appeared to have a map of England (or is that a mermaid washing her hair??!) and a light bulb etched upon it!



On our return to the mainland, it was good to see that wader migration was already well under way,with over a thousand birds visible, though most were extremely distant. Among the Lesser Sand Plovers, the most abundant species, were good numbers of juveniles, such as this one.



The peach wash on the breast soon fades. When present, it can make juvs look reminiscent of adults in breeding plumage. However, note the broad buff fringes to all the upperpart feathers, which are lacking in adults at this time of year.



Three juveniles and an adult (second from the right). The adult has much more uniform upperpart feathers and is also in wing moult.



A different group, three adults and one juvenile (far right) this time.