Pacific Golden Plovers in Mie

Last Friday (October 30th) I took a visiting Danish birder to Mie and we had quite a good day with a decent variety of birds. Indeed we did well both in terms of the various species as well as the sheer number of birds present at the various spots we stopped. The highlights for Stig were probably a (rather early) first winter Saunder's Gull and a party of five Far-Eastern Curlew, neither of which are unusual at the right time of year but require luck to get them on this date.


Duck numbers were still well below winter peaks and there were no Shelduck, Goldeneye or Red-breasted Merganser yet but we still managed 11 species. If we were a little early for ducks, the opposite was true of waders and again numbers, at least of passage species, were low but 21 species wasn't bad for the end of October.

Two Dunlin waiting for the tide to drop.

One of four Green Sandpipers in a favourite ditch.

Wood Sandpiper.

Long-billed Dowitcher.

The wader highlight for me was a party of nine Pacific Golden Plover. I feel I don't see nearly as many as I used to though perhaps that's more down to my habits changing rather than theirs. One very grey-bellied, brightly spangled bird stood out from the other duller birds but as it looked even more like a Pacific Goldie than the other Pacific Goldies there wasn't much chance of it being anything else...

SPECIES RECORDED:-
Gadwall
Falcated Duck   6
Eurasian Wigeon   100s
Mallard
Eastern Spot-billed Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Eurasian Teal
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe   numbers low, only a few in so far
Grey Heron   common
Great White Egret   common
Little Egret   100+
Great Cormorant   1000s
Eurasian Kestrel   1
Peregrine   1
Osprey   fairly common
Black Kite   common
Eurasian Sparrowhawk   1
Northern Goshawk   1
Moorhen   1
Coot   8
Oystercatcher   c50
Black-winged Stilt   5
Grey-headed Lapwing   3
Northern Lapwing   50-60
Pacific Golden Plover   9
Grey Plover   2
Kentish Plover   common
Common Snipe   8
Long-billed Dowitcher   2
Bar-tailed Godwit   16
Eurasian Curlew   3-4
Far-Eastern Curlew   5
Common Greenshank   11
Green Sandpiper   4
Wood Sandpiper   3
Terek Sandpiper   2
Common Sandpiper   fairly common
Ruddy Turnstone   2
Sanderling   c250
Red-necked Stint   15
Dunlin   c80
Black-tailed Gull   common
Vega Gull   fairly common
Slaty-backed Gull   3
Taimyr Gull   1
Black-headd Gull   common
Saunder's Gull   1
Greater Crested Tern   12
Feral Rock Dove   30-40
Oriental Turtle Dove   several
Common Kingfisher   8
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker   1 heard
Bull-headed Shrike   common
Carrion Crow
Large-billed Crow
Skylark   common
Brown-eared Bulbul   several
White-cheeked Starling   common
Daurian Redstart   common
Blue Rock Thrush   2
White Wagtail   common
Japanese Wagtail   several
Buff-bellied Pipit   1 plus 1 heard
Oriental Greenfinch   fairly common
Meadow Bunting   c10
Reed Bunting   fairly common