Mersing 03/08/2012 - The First Juvs of the Autumn.

Being the start of August I was wanting to get out and have a wander over the mudflats of Mersing in order to see if there was any new waders present. I chose this date as it is the highest tide of the month and so didn't want to pass up the opportunity. The tide came in fast and the mudflats was covered before I had reached the mid section of the northern beach. I then headed to the southern beach for the roost and timed it pretty bang on and had 3 hours over the high tide period. 

I have been without a digi-scoping camera for some time now and can't see me getting a replacement camera until the next "get-way" trip. So, what with the recent announcements of the new Swarovski scopes and new SLR adapters I just thought I'd have a go at digi-scoping with my Canon 7D just to see how easy/difficult it was and also to see what kind of photos I could get. These are the results and as you can see they are not so good but at least I can now get a shot to document a record. This will suffice until I decide what decision to make with the next purchase of digi-scope camera. But "Thank you to both Dave Gandy and Paul Wood for their input on the new Swarovski DSLR adapters.

Todays totals as follows:

High tide - 10:55, Height - 2.67 m

Common Sandpiper 2 (the first of the return / autumn passage)

Greater Sandplover 17 (including at least 3 juveniles of which are the first juvenile waders of the season and to be honest as I scratch my head I don't recall ever seeing any juveniles previously. Certainly a nice looking bird but also just enhances the difficulty I have with as a whole with the Sandplover complex)

Top photo shows the a juvenile Greater Sandplover and also the image below shows the same individual actually standing. It was the over all buffy - warm tones that first drew my attention to this individual but note how bright yellow/green the legs are. 

Lesser Sandplover c120 (nice to so many breeding plumaged adults which adds a nice splash of colour to the mix)

Terek Sandpiper 63 (including 1 worn adult)

Malaysian Plover 2 adults

Great Knot 2 (the 2 1st summer birds from the last visit remain faithful throughout to the site & roost, will be interesting to see if they stick around until late in the year)

Little Tern 4 (in the roost)

Common Tern 1 (in the roost)
Great Crested Tern 1 (fishing close offshore)
White bellied Sea-Eagle 1 adult.

At one point I was quite close to the waders but then a local walked by and flushed them, disappointed, hot, sweating, thirsty and tired I just didn't fancy the walk along the beach to get close and then for them to return to the area that they had just flushed from. So, I decided to ask the 2 nice young ladies in the photo below if they could walk in to the group - or in other words "twinkle" them for me. I have to say they did a blinding job and as the flock took to the air they twisted and turned in my direction returning back to the exact same spot as before "Beautiful" and so I then just enjoyed the moment of watching the waders at close hand.