Kentish Plover - Chaladrius alexandrinus
I have put this is as my 100th bird to take me over the 1 % mark for two reasons.
Firstly this is a bird that I only saw for the first time when I took my birding overseas. I was staying in the Sierra Nevada near Ronda with my wife a few months before our first child arrived. We took a trip down out of the mountains to the Cota Donana. A vast Spanish wetland. I saw dozens of birds I had never seen before and some strange little plovers that seemed to be washed out Ringed Plovers. They were of course Kentish Plovers. So they remind me of the first time I really birded overseas and everything was strange and new.
The second reason is the jigsaw puzzle of birding. I have to say I thought this was some form of sandplover. I am pretty sure after 20 minutes with the books that it isn't. It has black legs and a white collar and partial neck band whereas the sandplovers have a full neckband.
I am already studying some strange photos for bird 101 - I have a real mystery to solve for a bird I flushed off a puddle on a building site. So there we are 100 birds logged - 1 % of the worlds birds collected like beautiful stamps on my silly little site.
Kentish Plover, Chaladrius alexandrinus
Warsan, "the puddle", Dubai, UAE
31 March 2012
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