Spoon-billed Sandpiper et al

Saturday afternoon I had my first sighting of the world's most endangered shorebird, the spoon billed sandpiper, in Pak Thale. I have to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Phil Round and Dee who spotted three spoon-bills in a flock of assorted waders and steered me to them. I doubt whether I would have seen them unless I got a head on. These fellows may have a very distinctive spoon bill but it isn't obvious if, for instance, you get a side on view. These guys, however, can identify it due to the ultra white sheen of its underparts, without reference to its bill, and now that I have sighted it I can see how this is possible. Phil pointed one out and said to me its bill was wedged into its body but if I kept on the bird it would start feeding at some point and the bill would be visible. Sure enough five minutes later the spoon-billed sandpiper duly obliged and revealed its bill.

Phil Round reckons there are less than 300 spoon-billed sandpipers left in the entire world. Its status is extremely critical, or officially "critically endangered". The bird breeds in north east Russia in a fairly localised area and normally this area sees about 200 birds during the breeding season of the northern spring and summer, April through to October. This year two birds have been recorded. The IUCN Red List will give you full information about the range and status of this rapidly declining bird.

Birding becomes very easy when you are with the experts. I also had first sightings of Nordmann's Greenshank and Chinese Egret, a further two endangered shore birds, whose numbers are declining but not so dangerously as the spoon-billed sandpiper.....well, not yet. The Chinese Egret is riotous. It skews its neck and head at an angle of about 45+ degrees from its body and then tries to walk in a straight line as it feeds. We observed one red-necked stint that bore a tag from Shanghai,China. This gives an idea of the range of these birds, and the spoon-bill sandpiper comes from further north. Further first sightings included: grey plover, long-toed stint, dunlin, curlew sandpiper, and broad-billed sandpiper.

I also got a lesson in separating Indian from Little Cormorant....... the former has a much longer bill with a slightly downward pointing tip. This only really becomes apparent when they are next to each other and they duly obliged for us. When the Chinese Egret was spotted Phil gave us a very helfpul explanation of how the area around the eyes is quit distinctly shaped from that of the little egret.

So some top quality birding, grateful thanks to Phil Round.