Meet the locals #6

Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris)

A bit of an east Asian specialty, this is one of the more interesting local birds here in south Hokkaido. It is a fairly common late summer/early autumn visitor to the local beaches and can be seen from mid August to mid September. They are often solitary or in pairs and are surprisingly tame, many of these pics are only slightly cropped or not at all.





They breed in Siberia and winter south to Australia.

I'm not so hot on identifying the ages of waders especially in autumn but it seems to me that all these are all  juveniles (please feel free to correct me). According to the books juveniles have brown fringed coverts and yellowish legs and all thse pics seem to share those characteristics. Some adults must pass through however, maybe my hunch these are all juveniles is incorrect.

I have never seen them in spring, why I that is don't know................






Here are 2 Great Knots together with a Red Knot to show the structural differences...........

Red Knot is scarce around here, I've only seen 2 individuals in fact compared to the fairly common annual Great Knot.............



They are quite comical in manner, jogging along the beach completely ignoring any people about..............









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