Well the long awaited day to go out and re-search for red knots arrived and after breakfast I headed out with Pavel and Igor to the east. We started searching at just on 10:00hrs and by the time we decided to stop for lunch at 13:00hrs we had not found any new broods. We did manage to see the red knot above wearing white flag CKE (photo aabove) along with red knot CKM a bird wearing a geo-locator / data logger (photo below). We also managed to ring chicks of ringed plover and a single adult bird. We had lunch by the first river where we sat out of the buffeting wind. 
After lunch we began our return walk back to the village working a different area than the area we walked out on this morning. Not before long a new red knot was located but this time in the form of the "New Zealand male" (photo below) an individual that was seen here last year but had not yet been seen this year. This bird has been here all this time and yet nobody has managed to see him until this afternoon. It was great to see that this individual had 4 chicks nearby and so all 4 were ringed. This is a good bird, I watched it get chased by an arctic skua for over 10 minutes and at one point I really thought that the skua was going to succeed in in it's chase but this bird managed to elude the skua and return closeby and watch over it's chicks.
So feeling pleased we continued our return back to base at the village and then yet another male red knot (photo below) gave up the ghost and this bird had 3 chicks close by. Again the chicks were ringed and the usual measurements were taken. 
As you can see in the photo above this red knot was un-ringed but after being trapped it now wears the white flag with the letters CKT (photo below). I have to admit this is a cracking looking individual and I really did enjoy today. I spend a lot of my time during the winter months sitting in the cold of the inner Thames estuary searching for through flocks of "islandica" red knot for flag & colour ringed individuals from Norway and other locations. So to get the opportunity to see the race "rogersi" in the field and in the hand really is something very special for me. It also gets to me how these great birds are being affected by yet more development. Please see the attached link: http://worldwaders.posterous.com/ . This sadly reminds me of when I was in China earlier this year. I am not a bioligist, a conservationist or a reserve warden but I feel some how I want to do something / more to help with the protection of these great birds. 
