Headstarting is a collaborative effort between WWT, BirdsRussia and the RSPB, and occurs as part of the International Arctic Expedition mounted each year by BirdsRussia under the leadership of Dr. Evgeny Syroechkovskiy.

Observing SbS with a warm bottom

Baz Scampion writes:

I had one of my best days of birding and bird photography in a long time today. Everywhere I looked the birds kept popping up in front of me. There were a couple of obliging SbS feeding in the river, and loads of good waders like stunning summer plumage Grey Plovers, two Terek Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints, a Western Sandpiper, a Curlew Sandpiper, and Long-billed Dowitcher, amongst others.

The most exciting part was watching the Spoon-billed Sandpipers’ behavior. The birds were mostly feeding manically, often pulling up reasonable-sized worms. Some birds were getting aggressive with one other and a bit territorial, and one even started signs of display and began singing. I sat on my rucksack liner for the hours on the wet mud and ice, so that I didn’t get as cold as Phil did yesterday.

Spoon-billed sandpiper feeding on worms (c) Baz Scampion

Spoon-billed sandpiper feeding on worms (c) Baz Scampion

Spoon-billed Sandpiper agression (c) Baz Scampion

Spoon-billed Sandpiper agression (c) Baz Scampion

Spoon-billed sandpiper singing (c) Baz Scampion

Spoon-billed sandpiper singing (c) Baz Scampion

Leave a Reply

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.