Monday, July 19, 2010

First waders of 2010 have arrived.

Went to Tinagat beach, Tawau, today to establish whether the migrant waders are here already, and true to records, which said that the first of the waders would arrive in Borneo towards the end of July, I saw a big congregation of waders on a sand bar far far away.

From observation, they comprise  mostly of Great Knot  Calidris tenuirostris, with a few sand plovers and a Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva, and may be a Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus and a Red-necked Stint Calidris ruficollis. Here are the photograph of the sand bar, the afternoon heat-wave had wreaked havoc to the quality of the photos.

Great Knot should look like this without the heat wave. (picture taken in 2008).
Great Knots (2008)

The following images are taken today, 18th July 2010.
The stitched image of the sand bar.

A magnification.

A further enlargement showing most of them are Great Knot.

Happy birding.

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