29th August 2011 - Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at IRRI

Finally found a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper on the farms at IRRI. It's a passage migrant, and as such it should be annual, but despite extensive searching I've yet to find it, until today! In company with about 50 Wood Sandpipers and 4 Long-toed Stints, it didn't stand out at all size wise from the Woodies. It was only because I'd spotted the Long-toed Stints and was trying to get pictures that I was scanning through the flock more carefully than usual when there it was!

This looks to me like an adult moutling out of breeding plumage (a few brown chevrons visible on the underparts, upperparts still with white-buff fringes, rufous cap)

An interesting size comparison with the strikingly similarly plumaged juvenile Long-toed Stint

Week ending 28th August - IRRI

Another wet week, with more on the way. Despite this a fair bit of migration visible with the first flock of Pacific Golden Plovers, and another couple of Long-toed Stints. On Friday the first Snipe sp. of the autumn, as well as a large flock of Oriental Pratincoles.

Bird of the week however was encountered on Saturday morning, after rain had forced me to cancel my first Makiling excursion of the autumn and we had decided to go and do the weekly shop instead. A Slaty-legged Crake was prancing around in the middle of the road as we came down the back of the mountain, approaching the Calamba road. No camera of course, and the bird didn't hang around long enough anyway, but it enlivened an otherwise dreary day.

Painted Snipe

Long-toed Stint

Pacific Golden Plover

Chestnut Munia

Non-breeding adult and juvenile Oriental Pratincoles

Snipe sp. Looks like it'll be time to put some nets up soon.











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Week ending 14th August - IRRI

A drier week, so I got down to the fields on Wednesday. A few early flocks of Wood Sandpipers, and one small Stint on the main experimental farm. It was quite distant, but the pictures clearly show a Rufous-necked Stint. I decided to try again on Thursday, and found the bird on the same paddy. This time, however, it was a Long-toed Stint! Quite a coincidence seeing as there are at least 100 paddies to choose from, and also considering that neither species has occurred at IRRI in over 18 months!

The rest of the week was sunny, and I managed a few nice shots.

Long-toed Stint. Pale legs and a clearly, albeit only slightly, downcurved bill. Breast fairly heavily streaked, and a clear pale supercilium.

Rufous-necked Stint. Very small, dark legs, straight bill, faded rufous breast band, rudimentary supercilium.

Fan-tailed Cisticola

Wood Sandpiper

Yellow Bittern

Cinnamon Bittern

Juvenile Little Ringed Plover

Pacific Swallow

Spotted Dove

Collared Kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Oriental Skylark