Bangladesh generally gets few New Birds added to it’s National Checklist every year, thanks to a small group of dedicated Ornithologists and Birdwatchers. This year Birdwatcher duo Gary Allport and Jan-erik Nilsen added a new Bird called Lesser Noddy to our checklist, the birds were hanging out at a coastal setting of Cox’s Bazar District back on September 7th, 2024. This Bird generally is a deep sea bird and not recorded near Bangladesh Coast in recorded history. This news brought much excitement among Bangladeshi Professional and Hobbyist Birders, few more birders also got it at same location as Gary and Jan-erik. BirdingBD Tours decided to arrange a short trip from Dhaka to see this deep brown beauty.
We, a group of 07 Including Tour Leader Zaber Ansary and few Prominent Birders of BD like Professor Dr. Monirul H. Khan and Professor ANM Aminoor Rahman started from Dhaka. Others joined us at Cox’s bazar. We promptly went to the nearby location and started to look for it. There were very few terns feeding here and there but no sign of the Noddies. We scouted the whole area about 03 times then thought that our luck might not be as good as the previous parties. We decided to go to Kaladia of Sonadia. On the way we checked out few more roosting Tern flocks and was looking for white-winged terns but no luck again. A flyover flock of Black-tailed Godwits gave distant views and photos, a species quite rare in this region, Bar-tailed is more likely here.
After arriving at Kaladia at receding tide, we started roaming around and saw small flocks of waders here and there. Several species were present like Curlew Sandpipers, Broad-billed Sandpipers, Few Grey Plovers, pair of Great Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Eurasian Curlews and Whimbrels, Little/Red-necked Stints and Sand Plovers alike. We then went to the Kittiwake Spot and this time our luck was good. We spotted one dark bird roosting among other terns and instantly realized it was a Lesser Noddy, finally our Prime Target Bird. We promptly docked the boat and started taking photos and started getting closer to it. There were local fishermen fishing about. The moment they started reeling in their nets, the Terns and the Noddy went crazy and started flying around and between us and the fishermen while picking up small fishy treats. Two More Lesser Noddies appeared and we got several awesome flying, sitting and feeding photos of the Noddies and other Terns. This went on for quite a while. We tried to spread awareness among the fishermen to never try to catch the Birds because they seemed so Bold.
After successfully finding and the photographing the Main Target we went on looking for White-winged Terns. Dr. Monirul Khan managed to find one but most of us missed it. The Non breeding birds are tricky to spot and differ from non breeding whiskered terns which are plentyful. Several nice Breeding and Non-breeding Common Terns were awesome. We decided to hang out there for a bit, had the lunch we brought with us and explored few nearby mudflats. We found several flocks of terns, many juvenile Great-crested Terns and few Sanderlings. I Tried out my new Drone and took few Aerial Shots of the whole area.
After High tide started to rise again, we started heading back to Cox’s Bazar. Few Clouds emerged in distance making the Afternoon light simply Epic. The Atmosphere looked very awesome and temperature was cool. We happily returned to Mainland, had dinner and started waiting for our return Bus. This ended a short Successful Twitch for the Mega Rarity Lesser Noddy. We all returned with at least One Lifer each.
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