More shorebirds at Mida Creek

As I mentioned in my previous post, Mida Creek hosts a terrific variety of wintering shorebirds. Unfortunately, after three nights of ringing many of them had rings on which wasn't good for photography. All images were taken during my rather unsuccessfull photography session.

Terek Sandpiper is the third commonest species after curlew sand and Little Stint. They are really sweet and have a unique feeding behavior, running fast and skimming the surface for flies.

This brave terek went for a large crab. Here it is struggling to pull it out of its burrow:

And here it goes down the throat:

Trio - terek, Lesser Sand-plover, terek:

Both sandplovers are present in large numbers. Among the lessers we identified both atrifrons and mongolus in the hand, but I think that identifying them in the field in winter plumage is impossible.

Lesser Sand-plover

Greater Sand-plover

Eurasian Curlew

Grey Plover