I ventured down to the Thornside wader roost to try out a new
teleconverter on my camera. The high tide was at 7.30 am, and it was
fully in when I arrived - not much room for the waders, so they were
flighty and the sun was in an inconvenient location.
Anyhow, there were quite a few birds getting into breeding plumage -
the great knots were quite spotty and many had red wing coverts, there
were a few reddish curlew sandpipers and a few godwits turning red. So
far I haven't managed to find a red knot, though I think pre-breeding
red-necked stint.
One of the godwits appeared atypical and had me wondering for a while
whether it was a dowitcher. It had a good red chest flush [with a bit
of pale mottling] with red on its face [dark cap and eye stripe]. It
was halfway between a great knot and a regular godwit in size, and its
bill was 3/4 the length of the other godwits. Its bill was black the
full length of the upper mandible and pretty much the full length of
the lower mandible - just a hint of colour at the very base in one or
two shots. Its bill shape seemed to be more godwit-like than
dowitcher-like.
My tentative conclusion is that it is a male bar-tailed godwit, and I
would like to know if there are many records of black-billed godwits
around?
On the subject of off colours, I also managed to photograph a fairy
martin that had a brown tinge to its outer primary and a dark red-brown
wash on its chest.
Regards, Laurie.
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