Wader flocks – Greater Sand Plover

The wintering flocks of waders at the salt pans and mudflats of Pak Thale are nothing short of amazing. In two separate visits, we saw some 34 wader species including some major rarities such as Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmeus and Nordmann’s Greenshank Tringa guttifer. Most of the birds were at some distance from the paths and required good scope views for identification. I have blown up a few photos to show some of the more common species such as Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus, Lesser Charadrius mongolus and Greater Sand Plover C. leschenaultii. This photo shows a Greater Sand Plover in the centre and a couple of others resting amongst a group of Lesser Sand Plovers and a few Broad-billed Sandpipers.

Greater Sand Plover breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia. It nests in a bare ground scrape. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in east Africa, south Asia and Australasia. The larger and stronger bill, chunkier size and greenish legs of Greater Sand Plover compared to Lesser Sand Plover can be seen in the photo.

Broad-billed Sandpiper is strongly migratory, spending the non-breeding season from easternmost Africa, through south and south-east Asia to Australasia. It is highly gregarious, and will form flocks with other calidrid waders, particularly Dunlins Calidris alpina. Despite its European breeding range, this species is rare on passage in western Europe, presumably because of the south-easterly migration route. This bird’s breeding habitat is wet taiga bogs in Arctic northern Europe and Siberia.

Lesser Sand Plover breeds above the tree line in the Himalayas and discontinuously across to bare coastal plains in north-eastern Siberia, with the Mongolian plover in the eastern part of the range; it has also bred in Alaska. It nests in a bare ground scrape, laying three eggs. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in east Africa, south Asia and Australasia.

Source: Wikipedia