Wader numbers have started to increase again as passage of some species speeds up. Passage waders included good numbers of Wood Sandpiper and Ruff with smaller numbers of summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin and Little Stint. Terek Sandpiper, Common Ringed Plover and a single Broad-billed Sandpiper were also seen. Regular breeders were seen in good […]
Tag: Kentish Plover
Birding with giants
This morning I had the pleasure and honour to bird with two ornithological giants – authors of e.g. the recently published Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds, Lars Svensson and Hadoram Shirihai. I know Hadoram well since my childhood, but it was the first time I birded with Lars. We met up at Ma’agan Michael with […]
South-east China – 27th April (Day 6)
Today was our only scheduled attempt for Chinese Crested Tern on Shanyutan Island to the north or Changle. Chinese Crested Tern is thought to have a total population of fewer than 100 birds. For many years it was only known from a few specimens collected prior to 1937, and a small number of, mainly unconfirmed, […]
Baby Coots at Dungeness
After a two hour search of Rye Harbour for the Terek Sandpiper we gave up and headed over to Dunge. Our reward for this 10 mile diversion was to connect with a smart little Kentish Plover from Dennis’s hide as it walked about on the shingle scrape in the company of Sanderling and Dunlin. I […]
South-East China – 24th April (Day 3)
Our first full birding day and we were raring to go, we were up at 05:00 and into the bus by 05:30 we were on site at the Dongtai seawall by 05:45 where we had breakfast of banana, Snicker’s bars and various bread with hot sweet coffee on the seawall. Scanning during our breakfast produced […]
The Levante winds of Spring – Spain 2017
I lead a tour group from the the US Audubon Naturalist Society in April to southern Spain. We had a great time apart from the awful windy weather. The famous Levante wind just would not stop for almost the whole eight days. We did however have a great time, saw lots of birds and other […]
Waders and Terns – Jubail
Whilst birding the Jubail area in strong winds and the middle of summer few birds are generally seen. Waders can always be seen on the sabkha but they are restricted to breeding Black-winged stilts and Kentish Plovers as well as further inland Little Ringed Plovers that breed locally. A single Greater Sand Plover was a […]
Late Red-backed Shrikes – Jubail
I have been able to go to Jubail a few times recently, as it was the Eid holidays and on every visit in late June until 1 July I saw a number of Red-backed Shrikes including a stunning adult male on 1 July. This is late for the species as they nearly all pass through […]