A. (Charadrius) dealbatus. I visited a new location on Saturday close to my normal weekend a haunt at Dahu, south of Haifeng in Guangdong. This time I based myself in Lufeng and cabbed down to a little village south of the town, Shanghaizai. I was primamrily trying to get closer to a sandpsit which holds Terns but I got lost and ended up on the wrong peninsular. However I managed to persuade a local fisherman to very kindly ferry me across the estuary for a small consideration. I estimated that I was about 3.5kms to far to the east so I set off along the beach. I soon noticed numbers of odd looking "Kentish Plovers", (I estimated approximately 15+ pairs along the stretch of beach).These birds were greyer and paler than KPs, had longer tarsi, and had pale pinkish/grey legs .The females were much whiter around the eye while the males had shorter black shoulder patches and steeper foreheads. These Plovers had thick white superciliums in the main longer than KPs and had heavier bills.I had brought along some notes about Swinhoe's Plover as I had previously thought it odd to see so many "KPs" breeding so far south on the beach at Dahu. Martin Hale of Hong Kong had also suggested that it seemed curious to find so many KPs at this time of the year in the area.
I began to realise that all these birds were very similar in plumage to SPs so I when I returned to Shenzhen I emailed the photos to Peter Ericsson in Thailand who knew these birds well from sightings during the winter months. He confirmed the ID for me, much to my relief. I shall now return to do a proper head count and also check the birds at the other location along Dahu beach.
I began to realise that all these birds were very similar in plumage to SPs so I when I returned to Shenzhen I emailed the photos to Peter Ericsson in Thailand who knew these birds well from sightings during the winter months. He confirmed the ID for me, much to my relief. I shall now return to do a proper head count and also check the birds at the other location along Dahu beach.
