232 : Three-banded Plover

 

 

Three-banded Plover - Charadrius Tricollaris

 

Happy New Year 2013 !!

 

These are a tiny plover that inhabits freshwater margins in Southern and Eastern Africa. As with all plovers it has a short bill and large eyes. It is a sight hunter (rather than a long billed prober) picking small insects, invertebrates and molluscs off the surface of the mud and water. I spotted this little fellow on the side of a small stream - more like a ditch - that ran down into the Mara river near our camp. The tiniest little wader to start me off with the 100 or more species I was going to pick up in 2 days. So many that some 5 months later I am still logging them up !

 

I have some new year resolutions written down again this year and one of them is that I take the Daily Bird up and beyond the 500 mark. There are dozens of birds I need to pick up in the UAE. I really haven't gone off the deep end with my birding here perhaps only getting out 10 or so times a year. I am going to target some road trips on Saturday mornings to known spots to pick up some species - twitch as it were for some common species that I need to pick up. I am planning another weekend spectacular using my air miles. The rules for that are a 3 hour flight, a guide and 2 days of solid birding from a 5 star base. Pakistan has been ruled out in my head because of safety for now. I believe that Cyprus is in range and that could be quite special. I also have Northern India, Ethiopia, Egypt all well within range. That has to be done.

 

The big bahuna this year will be Walt Disney World Orlando. I have seen and photographed very few american birds - nestled on the edge of the Everglades I will have to try very very hard not to see 100 species in a week. I also have a few tricks up my sleeve with business travel. I have a conference on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. You would hope that some seabird action would be possible from the balcony of my room. I also have some training in Cambridge so if I extend that by a day I could get into the fens to pick up a dozen ducks and so on. Its about taking my opportunities when I can as it will be a busy year at work and much as I would like to I cannot just head off circumnavigating the globe taking bird pictures. When the time is right I will go. I have a good decade or more to earn that right left and a few promises to keep before I can indulge myself.

 

So I am looking foward to 2013 as I really feel in the swing of this now in terms of racking up the list. It has almost replaced my life list now - I don't feel I have ticked a bird until I have a shot and I have written something about it - however short.

 

Three-banded Plover, Charadrius Tricollaris

Mara River, Tanzania

July 2012