Fell in love with Cansaga bay and the bridge :D

Common Greenshank

I went back to Cansaga bay hoping for new lifers. I was just 4 birds short. On this trip I got lucky. I had 3. The first time was a blast. I got to see and shoot birds in flight. On this trip the sun was a bit shy and the clouds have been hogging the sky. The photos have not been so good but I still had a good time.

I did the same tactic - get on the bridge and just stand there and wait. Normally, you'll see terns fly by along with some and Egrets, and then some swallows beneath the bridge and some swiftlets too (which by the way are still not on my list due to the difficulty of identifying let alone photographing them). 

Every now and then I'd see lone long-billed birds like that of a Whimbrel but was not too sure if they were Whimbrel or Curlew- I took shots anyway. It was exciting for me knowing that the birds I just shot might be a new bird for me. I minimized chimping because almost everytime I did, a bird or a flock of waders would fly past me. I decided to just take shots now, wonder about the identification later.

Black-headed gull

Most of the birds that day flew solo or in two's. I don't know why, but that's what I noticed. There were a flock of sandpipers and Black-headed gulls though.

Anyway, I got home and started going over the photos. They were pretty bad due to the poor light coupled with the fast shutter speeds which only made them more underexposed.





Bird #97 - Curlew or Common Curlew.
Less barring on the under-wing more white and contrasting underparts.

Bird #98 - Far-eastern Curlew. Under-wing has more barring and less contrast on the underparts.
So far that's the only way I know to tell them apart. The FEC does tend to have a longer bill and is slightly bigger than the Curlew.

100% crops

 Bird #99 - Broad-billed sandpipers. I had help with the id on our Facebook group. These guys were a flock of about 9 or so birds. There was a Red-necked stint that came along, which is bird #3 on the photo - left.













Here's a different shot of them together. The Red-necked stint had a noticeably shorter bill:

Broad-billed sandpipers with Red-necked stint (top-right)