Those godwit and knot intending to migrate this year are most likely all gone, leaving just several hundred of each species in residence.
However those godwits that steadily departed since early March may well be wondering about the wisdom of it, as conditions at their Yalu Jiang stopover site are somewhat cold. On 1 April there were 4cm of fresh snow!
There are still, however, some traditionally late tundra-breeders yet to depart.
Migrants and Vagrants
Bar-tailed Godwit
Red Knot
22 Golden Plover
8 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
1 Arctic Skua
The Marsh Sandpiper that has been here since last year is still present.
NZ Species
2000+ Wrybill
South Island Pied Oystercatchers
Pied Stilt
6 Royal Spoonbill
New Zealand Dotterel
100 Banded Dotterel
Variable Oystercatcher
Banded Rail
Black-billed Gull
White fronted tern
Caspian tern
2 White Herons
Bittern
Banded Rail
c100 Grey Teal
Very interesting let’s hope it’s not too late I’m serirpsud at the availability of any information at all from Myanmar. The project poses some interesting practical issues wader chicks are precocious and so are active as soon as they hatch so what sort of problems are they going to have with juvenile birds and their feeding behaviour, also do the parents need to be part of this? One would think so. Also, as stated on the podcast these birds will be from the original clutch and not from a secondary laying which is what these schemes normally do e.g. Red Kite and Great Bustard thus avoiding imprinting’ problems and using excess’ chicks and not the originals. I wonder that by using this method it might be a bit risky Let’s hope they know what they are undertaking I wish them luck
Definitely worth the wet knees, especially as I don’t know when I will see one next. I can’t even begin to count the numebr of times I’ve ended up with wet or sore knees, and every time it was worth it.It is not surprising that they remind you of a Killdeer, as they are both species of plover and have very similar builds. The Wrybill is a bit smaller, and during its breeding plumage will only have a single necklace as compared to the Killdeers double necklace. The body shape though is very similar.
Where (and when) was the bittern seen?
Hi Heather, they are still in the area, we hope they’ll breed again this summer! At the moment they are being seen most when they are flying around the Shorebird Centre, sometimes directly over the managers house.