sbena

Curlew Sandpiper X9, Deep Bay mudflat, 22 May 2012. Also 3 Red-necked Stint each with an orange flag (Victoria, Aus).

Jonathmartinez

A Terek's Sandpiper with HK flag engraved K2 was this morning 24th of
may at Xito near Yangxi city, on the Guangdong coast.

Jonathan

ajohn

Interestingly Terek Sandpiper K2 was back at Mai Po this morning.
Other leg-flagged birds still present this summer include Terek Sandpiper L0, Greenshank D7 and a Marsh Sandpiper (I think N0, but it was slightly too distant to be sure).

John Holmes

At MPNR boardwalk, yesterday, 16th July 2012

Common Redshank " A3 "

ajohn

Thanks for posting this sighting John. It is indeed a returning bird. A3 was flagged on the first day that engraved flags were used in Hong Kong, on 26th August 2010 - making this our oldest resighting to date (690 days). It had not been reported since 5 September 2010!
The same bird was present on the Mai Po Scrape today, along with four other Redshank with engraved flags (D3, P1, P5 and S2) and one Greenshank (A5).

[ Last edited by ajohn at 18/07/2012 09:12 ]

Sze

Ringed Sand Plover found on 8/18/2012 10:24:30 AM
From this post:
http://www.hkbws.org.hk/BBS/view ... amp;page=1#pid50539

lrichard

Black-tailed Godwit leg-flagged white over yellow (number M7) seen at Mai Po Pond 16/17 on 20 August 2012

lchunfai

Hopefully I didn't make a mistake of the codes

18 August

From Hide 8,
Common Redshank C8, E9, T9
Black-tailed Godwit M7, D0  and one more godwit with unknown code
Common Greenshank E4

From #16/17,
Greater Sand Plover B1, B2

John Holmes

At Pond 16a or is it 16b ?  MPNR on 2nd Sept 2012

Greater (?) Sand Plovers C6, B1

Terek Sandpiper P4

lrichard

Hey Joe!

Leg-flagged waders in front of the Mai Po boardwalk, 5 Sep 2012:

Greater Sandplover J0, A9, C6, C7, D2, D8, H5
Common Redshank B1, E4, R5, R9, T2, U7
Black-tailed Godwit B7
Marsh Sandpiper A2

Also a Greater Sand Plover with yellow (or faded white) over blue flags, which hopefully John Holmes will post photos of.

John Holmes

Perhaps Taiwan ?  Depends what colour you think the top flag was originally..

[ Last edited by John Holmes at 5/09/2012 22:41 ]

ajohn

Greater Sandplover C7 is an interesting resighting. It was originally flagged in September 2010, but the only sightings since then were in February and March 2012, suggesting it may have overwintered in Deep Bay last year. It will be interesting to see if it stays in the bay now or moves on.

lhroger

2 Sep 2012
Mai Po Nature Reserve

GW #11
Redshank T2, C8
Pond #16a
Terek Sandpiper P4
GW #16/17
Whimbrel K5

handrew

MPNR 13/09/2012 am. Falling tide - Boardwalk

Redshanks - all White over Yellow - R8, S2, T2

Greater Sand Plover W/Y - H7

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk, 14 Sep 2012

Greater Sand Plover B9, C4, C6
Terek Sandpiper P1

fkkc

Greater Sand Plover C1  @  Maipo #16/17  on 16 Sep 2012

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk, 28 Sep 2012

Black-tailed Godwit  B3, D0, K9
Common Greenshank D2, E7
Marsh Sandpiper A4

Pond 16/17

Common Redshank B1

handrew

Mai Po Boardwalk, 03/10/2012

Terek P5 (note the metal band is also visible)

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk, 5 Oct 2012

Common Redshank D3, R2, R6, R8
Terek Sandpiper R1

kkitty

Wetland Park, 4 Oct 2012
Common Redshank (V0)





[ Last edited by kkitty at 8/10/2012 12:59 ]

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk 12 Oct 2012:

Greater Sand Plover C4
Terek Sandpiper S2 (I think) - a distant, injured bird with no left foot
Terek Sandpiper, one, leg-flagged white over yellow with no alphanumerical

Mai Pond Pond 16/17 same day:

Common Redshank U4

lrichard

19 Oct 2012

Common Redshank C8, C0, U5  Mai Po boardwalk

Black-tailed Godwit L0 (or possibly LD)  Pond 16/17

ajohn

Thanks Richard.
The godwit is L0. So far the only engraved flags used in Hong Kong have been one letter followed by one number, with the exception of a few Curlew Sandpipers, on which we have now switched to a letter-letter combination.

hkbear

28-Oct-2012
Mai Po Boardwalk
Curlew Sandpiper U6

ajohn

Hello hkbear.
Your bird is a Common Redshank. Note the long, reddish legs, very different from Curlew Sandpiper.
U6 was flagged on 20th August 2012, but surprisingly has only been since once since then (on 11th September), so thank you for reporting it.

hkbear

Thanks for the correction John.

I am still having a tough time dealing with all those shore birds. (Well, it applies to many other bird species too!)

The reason why I reported it as a Curlew Sandpiper was that, in this same thread, the leg tag U6 was reported to have been placed on a Curlew Sandpiper last year and the bird was sighted in the Northern China.

That leads me to the following questions: Are leg tags with the same number being used on different bird species? Or each species will have its unique leg tags?

ajohn

The metal ring on each bird is unique - no other bird of any species will have the same number/letter combination.

But the engraved leg flags can be used on more than one species. But the code will only be used once on each species, so that we can identify the individual involved. It is therefore important that you provide not only the letter/number combination, but also the species involved. The combination U6 has been used on Common Redshank and Curlew Sandpiper (but no other species yet). Others are used on more species, e.g. A0 has already been used on 10 different species!

This is largely because the combination of one letter plus one number only gives around 200 combinations - we would very quickly run out of combinations if each could be used only once. In order to get more combinations, you need more letters/numbers. This adds extra weight to the flag, and requires that the writing is smaller - which would make them difficult or impossible to read in the field (much like the metal rings).

hkbear

Thanks for the info again John!

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk 2 Nov 2012

Pied Avocet A6, K2, R5

hkbear

3 Nov 2012
Mai Po boardwalk

Common Redshank R2

ajohn

R5 has not yet been used on an Avocet. Is it possible this was another combination (maybe K5?)
The other two avocets reported are interesting - neither has been resighted previously. K2 was flagged in December 2011, but A6 was flagged back in January 2011 - I wonder where it has been since then?

John Holmes

at Nam Sang Wai this morning ( 22nd Nov. 2012 )

and a (late report, I found it among some old photos) PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER " L7 " at MPNR b/w on 29th October 2012

ajohn

Interestingly P2 was reported at Nam Sang Wai in October and December last year (including one sighting by a certain J Holmes), suggesting that it favours this area. We get surprisingly few reports of flagged birds at NSW.

The PGP was flagged on 19 October 2012, so perhaps not as surprising an observation as it may first seem, but still useful data.

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk new hide, 1 Dec 2012

Greater Sand Plover C7, J1, J6
Common Redshank D3, E8, N8, R2, S2, U5, U6

John Holmes

5th Dec 2012

A 1.8m tide at the newest boardwalk hide

Black-tailed Godwit K9

Common Greenshanks  A5 and an "old flags/no numbers" bird

Common Redshank B1,   D2, D3,   E8,   H2,   R7,   T0, T7,   U6

wserene

2012-12-19 Mai Po boardwalk new hide

Eurasian Curlew A7

Sze

Report and Photo by Eric NG @ Nam Sang Wai on 01/01/2013

fkkc

Common Redshank U5
13.1.2013 Maipo Broadwalk

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk 18 Jan 2013

Greater Sand Plover J1

HFCheung

Some leg-flagged waders in Mai Po boardwalk on 16 Feb 2013.

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19/02/2013 12:03

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19/02/2013 12:03

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19/02/2013 12:03

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19/02/2013 12:03

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk 4 March 2013

Eurasian Curlew A2, A4, A6
Pied Avocet E4
Grey Plover J9

ajohn

One interesting observation over the last couple of weeks is the arrival of several leg-flagged Avocets (not all reported here) that have not been reported earlier in the winter. This is surprising because most were flagged in November or December of last winter (i.e. late 2011).
It is not clear if these have been in Hong Kong but not observed (e.g. due to lower tides), or whether they have spent the early part of the winter further north. Observations of two HK-flagged birds in Taiwan this winter suggests at least some birds may not have come as far south as HK until February.

ddavid

Mai Po Boardwalk March 12 2013

Grey Plover C2, H1, H5, P5, R9
Eurasian Curlew A1, A4
Marsh Sandpiper B3
Spotted Redshank M0
Great Knot L3

David

lrichard

Mai Po boardwalk (Cathay hide), 16 March 2013:

Eurasian Curlew A4
Grey Plover H5, J5, J7, L5, L7, P3, R0, S1, S2, T1, T2

lrichard

... one more, 16 March 2013:

Pied Avocet K0

lrichard

... and another one (Mai Po boardwalk, 16 March 21013)

Great Knot L3

raywmng1

Mai Po, 17 Mar 2013

Common Greenshank, A0

hkbear

March 17, 2013
MaiPo Boardwalk

Pied Avocet D8

tgraham

Avocet  A5  A5

Pond 15B

HFCheung

HK Flagged Waders seen on 29 March 2013, Mai Po pond 16/17

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30/03/2013 16:48

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30/03/2013 16:48

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30/03/2013 16:48

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30/03/2013 16:48