Waders Watch- Mersing Part 1

Ron Chew had been monitoring and documenting the shorebirds at Mersing for some time now. Mersing Bay turned out to be a stop over for many of the rarer shorebirds during the spring migration. The bonus of seeing them at this time of the year is that many of them are in their breeding plumage.

Part of a roosting flock of 500 LSP, 100 Terek SP and 200 Little Terns.

Early this week, I made my way up there and found two groups of roosting shorebirds. One flock consists of 500 Lesser Sand Plovers, 200 Little Terns, 100 Terek Sandpipers and I was told a few Grey-tailed Tattlers and Common Sandpipers.

Part of the flock of 60 Bar-tailed Godwits. The two flagged Godwits are on the right.

Another cluster has about 400 Lesser Sand Plovers, 60 Bar-tailed Godwits, 30 Grey Plovers, 20 Great Knots, 14 Kentish Plovers, a few Ruddy Turnstones, Common Greenshanks, Common Sandpipers and a Broad-billed Sandpiper.

3 Great Knots, 5 Bar-tailed Godwits, 2 Grey Plover and hidden Terek Sandpiper

Best time to photograph them is during late afternoon with the setting sun behind you. The tide should not be too low or else the waders will be feeding further out.

Grey Plovers with Great Knots in front.

 

Part of a flock of 20 Great Knots.

 

Two Great Knots of different sizes with a Grey Plover.

 

Lesser Sand Plover in breeding plumage

Lesser Sand Plover with Kentish behind

Kentish Plover in breeding plumage

Breeding plumage of a Lesser Sand Plover and a Kentish Plover.

Close up of feeding Great Knots.

Last month, Ron reported 200 Terek Sandpipers at Mersing. Now we know where the Tereks gone to.

Managed to find one Broad-billed Sandpiper with  Lesser Sand Plovers.

This Bar-tailed Godwit was flagged in Chongmin-dao on 17 Sept 2014. Shows the importance of places like this for migrating shorebirds.

Reference: A Field Guide to the Waterbirds of Asia.Wild Bird Sciety of Japan. 1993.

An afternoon at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves.

My hand phone view from the main hide. So lucky that the main pond was dry today and the waders decided to roost here. You cannot ask for the waders to be nearer than this. One Eurasian Curlew, two Black-tailed Godwits (six according to Adrian Gopal), one Barred-tailed Godwit, two Terek Sandpipers were all here, among the Whimbrels, Common Redshanks and Greenshanks, Lesser Sand and Pacific Golden Plovers and Marsh Sandpipers.

Whimbrels spooked by a passing Brahminy Kite

A Common Redshank returning to the main flock for safety in numbers.

The Whimbrels are one of the best reference waders use to separate the other more difficult waders.

Barwit or Blackwit? Even though the tip of the tail looks black this is a Bar-tailed Godwit. Note the shorter tiba. The black tips are the primaries.

Same bird as above taken a few second later in a hurry. The upturned bill and the upper tail are diagnostic. Thanks to Ben Lee for pointing this out to me.

The expression on this Terek Sandpiper says it all.

The unmarked white underwing coverts belong to the Eurasian Curlew.

An a sh..ty shot to end the afternoon.