Black-legged Kittiwakes, Crested Terns and more
We were a group of 07 Birders started our journey to Cox’s Bazar one Thursday night. Bus started a little late so we arrived at Cox’s Bazar at about 08:30AM. After having breakfast we went directly to the Local Boat Port and started our journey. When we arrived at Sonadia low tide was almost gone. We were welcomed by few Ruddy Turnstones and few Bar-tailed Godwits. We saw few distant flocks of Grey Plovers and Greenshanks but they flew away before we could approach. There were loads of Black-headed Ibis and Eurasian Curlews present there. We had fun photographing them. High tide approached very fast and quickly submerged the whole mudflat. We photographed few Kentish Plovers and Stints, along with Red Crabs on the sea beach and started for our second location.
We arrived at the High Tide roost location and found loads of Gulls, Terns, Shorebirds huddled together roosting in 03 small islands. We stopped at a distance and started approaching them slowly. We were taking group photos often to check later. We found few Black-legged Kittiwakes easily and had fun photographing them. We noticed there were several individuals present including Adults and juveniles from two subspecies. We also found loads of Great Crested Terns there, along with several Pallas’s Gulls in breeding and younger plumages. Few Lesser Black-backed Gulls were present also and one juvenile. After looking for a bit we found few Lesser Crested Terns in the flock. There were loads of Breeding and Non Breeding Little Stints there also.
We started checking the ever moving and scrambling large flock of mixed waders for spoon-billed sandpipers. But sadly we could not pin point one. We found more Ruddy Turnstones, Curlew Sandpipers, Dunlins, Sanderlings, Terek Sandpipers, Broad-billed Sandpipers, Tibetan and Greater Sand Plovers along with several Red-necked Stints and Little Stints.
No Knots, Shanks, Godwits were present in this roost. We got fantastic photos of the flock and had fun photographing them for hours. We noticed that water levels started receding and the flock started to disperse so it was time to start return journey otherwise we would be stuck. We found few Black-capped Kingfishers and Collared Kingfishers on the way back along with more Ospreys.
We stopped at another mudflat but it was too muddy to step down. We got some really nice photos of Eurasian Curlews, Whimbrels and Grey Plovers from here.
As per the guests suggestion we started our return journey to Cox’s Bazar. We then had Dinner at famous Poushee Restaurant with Coral Fish, Loitta Fish and Shrimps. Then went to Sea Beach to chill for some time. Few guests did some shopping up until our return bus. We went from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazar by Business Class AC Bus and Returned by Sleeper AC Bus.
Spoon-billed Sandpiper??
What about Spoon-billed Sandpiper? Yeah sadly we couldnt spot any in the large shorebird flock there.
But after checking flock photos carefully I managed to find one our of focus Spoon-billed Sandpiper in flight. Check out it’s photo.
