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I don't find a topic for this bird, so here's my contribution.



Taken in WCNP, April 2006

They are also common at Tsitsikamma and Cape recife and Woody Cape at Addo

Nice one Arks, saw my first one last Sunday at the Swakopmund salt works!

I would appreciate some help with waders I photographed in the south of Mozambique (March 2008). I find it very difficult to ID these types of birds….they all look the same to me.
The photos are unfortunately not good quality….taken from afar in very bright light…it is also not always possible to check the colour of the bills and legs because it is covered in mud.

1. This one I thought might be a type of plover, with juvenile/non-breeding plumage….but the legs look too short?
It appears that the legs are black and it has a black band on the chest.

Larger View

Wader No.1 is a juvenile Ruddy Turnstone. I don't know of anything else that has the distinctive black band and dark brown head. Legs normally orange, but may just be muddy in this picture.

That hunched-down giss of bird #1 also shouts: "Ruddy turnstone!" Nothing else fits...

The ruddy turnstone, Arenaria interpres, is occasionally found inland. I got this one this morning at the Leeupan LBB gull site... some consolation for being foolhardy in periodically checking to see if the gull didn't return


Large view