Broome 2017 _ Wave The Waders Goodbye _ Day 02

Chris Hassell works for the Global Flyway Network. He bands birds during our summer, records the birds that are present at Broome then spends weeks in China looking for banded birds on their way to their breeding grounds. This is to monitor world populations of migratory shorebirds. Each bird is given two coloured flags on each leg plus a flag which has 6 positions it can be in [top, middle, bottom on each leg]. Thus birds are individually marked. Below are some examples. But first you have to find the birds in this lot!

And then something like a Peregrine Falcon or Whistling Kite or Brahminy Kite or Brown Goshawk spook them and they ALL take off. Back to square 1.

Day 02

Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica 
1BLLR [flag in position 1 on top on left leg; blue, light green, light green, red]

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
1BRRR. Images don't have to be in focus to ID the birds!

Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
1RYYB

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
5BBYL
Sooty Oystercatcher Haematopus fuliginosus
Yellow W5

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
?YLYR

Also in this shot are:
Little Tern Sternula albifrons
Red Knot Calidris canutus
Lesser Crested Tern Thalasseus bengalensis
Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii