Little Waihi/Maketu - American Golden Plover

[Tim Barnard]

Hi
Steve and I went back on Sunday - had a really distant view of the AGP in the paddocks at about 10am but failed to find it again in the afternoon at high tide. A little surprising as there were 27 PGPs present.

Primaries growing back well and the bird does seem to have bulked up since we first found it.

Some of Steve's photos from Saturday below ... can see the primaries growing back in the flight pic and minimal toe projection.

Cheers
Tim

[Tim Barnard]

Just so you get a feel for the effort we've put in to bring you these photos ... you can't see the myriad bitey things getting stuck into us and it would be fair to say that Stevo was just a little surprised by the depth of the ditch!!

[Tim Barnard]

and for the record - a New Zealand twitch - almost as rare as an AGP! (Steve, Phil, me and Loretta on camera - built to a heady five with Paul Cuming approaching fast from Tauranga) ...

[kaimaikid]

Looking at that 5th photo I'd say he's a dedicated man - nice photos by the way.

[Tim Barnard]

Hi
American golden plover back at Little Waihi on a serene evening with:

Bar-tailed godwit 390
Knot 23
PGPs 23
Banded dotterel 87
Wrybill 4
Red-necked stint 4
Pied stilt 230
NZ dotterel 7 (in the camp ground)
SIPO 12
VOC 27

Still 8 PGPs in the fields at the Kaituna and 23 Banded dotterel.

Tim

[Neil Fitzgerald]

That must be a record twitch! Previous was franklin's gull or Hamilton's snipe a few years back? I don't think either used a while hand of digits.

[Brent Stephenson]

Don't forget the dunlin twitch at Karaka/Kidd's! I think there were 7 or 8 people there at the same time for that one!
Cheers,

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Whew, I think that one will stand for a while longer!

[Tim Barnard]

Hey Brent ... that was more of a straggle in the mud as I remember ... certainly the lengthiest line ...

Here are a few more shots from the weekend showing: its dark cap, a comparative view with a PGP and one showing just how white it is around the face ...

Cheers
Tim

[phil hammond]

just being a bit pedantic----there were 9 of us on the dunlin twitch!!!

thanks ian ,steve and tim for great photos of this bird