That time of week again and as my day off arrived I departed to Mersing. I really like the town of Mersing, it isn't that big and a lot of the local people are friendly and say hello to me now in certain places which is always nice, however the main reason I visit this location is because of the area of inter-tidal mudflats and to see what Waders are present. Above shows you the area of the northern beach just as I arrived and a storm was coming in.
I walked the entire length of the northern beach where I managed to find a nice decent sized flock of Terek Sandpipers including 1 near "bang on full summer - breeding plumaged individual" a few Barwits and Whimbrels but the best birds on this beach today were the 6 1st summer Great Knots and 2 Chinese Egrets. Above shows you the 2 dogs that kept me entertained as they stalked the flock of 90+ Terek Sands and I really didn't mind as they shuffled the flock enabling me to scan through them easier than when they were all bunched up.
I then decided to cut back to the southern beach but the walk would have taken around 40 minutes through the town due to the river mouth being to deep to wade across and so I chanced my arm and waved down a local boat who were more than happy to give me a lift across to the other side- pretty much most of the Malaysian people I have met are polite, respectful and happy to help.
As I got off the boat I managed to locate the roosting Sandplover flock and I was happy with the count of 219 Lesser and at least 3 Greater Sandplovers. I made my way through them and also located 2 nicely moulting adult Red necked Stints. The light was starting to go and so I managed to get a couple of shots above and below. I have checked and I believe these to be the schaeferi race which does make sense and tie in accordingly. This is the longest billed race of Lesser Sandplover and some individuals really did have bills that would look good for a Greater Sandplover let alone a Lesser.
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Above shows you the moon during mid afternoon and just under a week to go until the new full moon is over us generating some nice high tides and so I plan to be back here next week to see how these height of tides work and how the waders roost in comparison.
The following morning I was up early in order to catch the run off of the tide just after dawn. The numbers of Sandplovers were starting to decrease as some had already began to depart to the west. The light was nice and so I grabbed the opportunity to take a few more record shots.
Most of the Lesser Sandplovers present here at the moment appear to be 1st summer individuals and I wonder if these will actually leave here for another area or will they in-fact over-summer here in the estuary at Mersing. It will be interesting to see exactly what does linger in to the summer months, if anything at all that is. Terek Sandpipers spent some of the time within the roost this morning before departing along with the remainder of the Lesser Sandplovers. Two Malaysian Plovers remained faithful even when all the other waders had moved on. So - until next week.
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