White-rumped Sandpiper at Mosteiros, Sao Miguel. One of 23 birds present at this site. Large numbers of White-rumps have arrived on the Azores in the last few days including 100+ at Cabo da Praia, a flock on Santa Maria, 30+ here and smaller numbers on the other islands.
A lot of variation in the juvenile/first winter birds with varying states of moult and also variation in the amount of rufous tones in the upperparts. This is a rather crisp looking bird
This juvenile/ first-winter has lost many of its coverts on the right wing
A rather bright and rufous toned juvenile/ first-winter
An adult White Rumped Sandpiper showing worn coverts
Juvenile Semi-palmated Plover (White-rumps in background). One of three juvenile birds at Mosteiros
Juvenile Semi-palmated Sandpiper
Adult and juvenile/ first-winter American Golden Plovers. Part of a flock of 10 birds (the largest flock for the WP?) present west of Calhetas
10 American Golden Plovers
On our way to Corvo (Darryl and I) and we stopped off at Sao Miguel for our connecting flight tomorrow. We met up with Gerby and had a look around the Sete Cidades lakes (dead) and then went to Mosteiros where we had 23 White-rumps, 3 Semi-p Plovers and 1 Semi-p Sand. Spent most of the day taking photos of them but explored a bit along the north coast and found a flock of 10 yankie golden plovers. We had a look round the harbour at Ponta Delgada for the last bit of light- 1 juvenile Spoonbill was the highlight.
Hopefully Corvo tomorrow if the weather permits.
All the Azores bird news here: http://azoresbs.weebly.com/
Darryl's account of today here: http://gwentbirding.blogspot.pt/
Low latitude depression currently over the Azores presumably responsible for this wader invasion.
It will be interesting with regard to the final count of WRS's with Alan Vitterys' reported 255 on Santa Maria. What with the 'fall' on Inishmore who knows what's out there!
ReplyDeleteLaurie -