This is the time of the year where waders are said to make travel arrangments to escape the blistering cold at their breeding site. Although a bit sceptical initially but a seasoned birder (AngTH) affirmed that this is the best time to see waders (both Winter Visitors and Passage Migrants) in their breeding plumage. So off we went to look for waders at the Selangor coast with the hope that we were lucky enough to spot a wader with a coloured tag on its leg. The afternoon weather was nice for bird watching but certaintly not for photography.
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| Eurasian Curlew |
Sometimes the waders do fly in as an individual.
or in a loose formation like the above group.
Or in a tight formation like this one.
At its peak, they can literally fill up the sky.
If they are spooked by raptors, they can produce the following phenomenon:
This formation which is quite similar as those "applied" by sardins in the ocean and some munias is meant to confuse the raptors as they will most unlikely to be able to identify any weak/juvenile ones among those flock of waders.
After going thru frame by frame, i was finally able to spot a wader with flags on it
The above images show a Bar-Tailed Godwit with a tag on its left leg. From the scope we could see clearly that the tag was black at the top and green at the bottom which was presumely originated from Thailand. We did also saw (with a scope) another wader (a Great Knot) with a tag of black on the top and white at the bottom which was said to be originated from Chongming Dao, China.
We also saw many terns such as these ones:
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| Aleutian Tern? |
Nope its was just a Common Tern due to lack of dark band on its secondaries :(
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| Gull-Billed Tern |
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| Caspian Tern |
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| Common Greenshank |
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| Whimbrel (right) with a Godwit |
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| Lesser Sand Plover (still at breeding plumage) |
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| Lesser Sand Plover |
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| Eurasian Curlew |
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| Bar-tailed Godwit |
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| Red-Necked Stint? |
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| Painted Stork |
Locals said this fellow has made his home here.
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| A Great Knot - resting |
There were also redshanks (in thousands), ruddy turnstones, black-tailed godwit, pacific golden plovers, grey plovers, common sandpipers, grey herons, a white bellied sea eagle flying by, brahminy kites, and probably many more in between these thousands of waders.
