Banded Dotterels

[Will Parsons]

Over the last 2 days I have had 2 major excursions into the Wairau lagoons and seen no Banded Dotterels in areas they frequented last year. I put this down to increasing numbers of wild cats which I have photographed and passed onto DOC and suggested a trapping programme. Not enough funds I was told and and all traps in use for Black Fronted tern. Has anyone else noticed a drop off in dotterel numbers?
Besides that I have seen more godwit than previous seasons but this maybe due to the fact I'm exploring a bigger area(over 2200 hectares!). Also good numbers of grey teal and spoonbill.

[philbattley]

Hi Will,

There seem to have been good numbers of juvenile godwits in NZ over the past few years, so you may well be seeing more godwits now than formerly. Groups of juveniles are likely to end up in places where adults don't frequent as much, and maybe Wairau is one of those places. If you can get close enough to the godwits you might still be able to detect juveniles readily, with their contrasting notched coverts, scapulars and tertials. They will be losing them through moult, and by mid-December there may be juvs that we will overlook. Here's an example of one from the Manawatu recently.

Cheers, Phil

[Will Parsons]

Thanks Phil; I'm going out tomorrow so will take a closer look. the more I see the more confused I become! For example the attached picture is it A Golden or American plover.

(176.65 KiB) Viewed 4025 times

[philbattley]

Yes...

Could you do a crop just around the bird and post at a bigger size?

Phil

[Jan]

Coo, leave this to you experts, but thanks, Phil for the Vet.-check on the duck wings. Most interesting, poor ducks.

[Will Parsons]

(70.57 KiB) Viewed 4019 times

[philbattley]

I think the goldenness of the upperparts point towards juvenile Pacific GP, and the primary projection and tertial length are OK for that species too. Sav may have an opinion.

Cheers, Phil