Monday 28 February 2011

World Bird Wednesday - Bar-Tailed Godwit.

A few weeks ago I was in the right place at the right time to band (ring if you wish!) some Bar-Tailed Godwit. I'd watched these birds in both the northern and southern hemisphere, but I had never had one in the hand. What a splendid bird. Huge, but slender beaks and long legs.

These are some picture from the beach and during processing.


















































You can find many more images of birds from around the world at World Bird Wednesday.


You can see the blog post that originally featured these images here, and you can look at the most recent of my posts by clicking the Paying Ready Attention link on the RHS of the screen.

13 comments:

  1. Very Interesting Bird.Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  2. those are some good looking birds! I've only see Marbled Godwits (there's a good birding festival in Northern CA called Godwit Days). Great post!

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  3. I have still to see a Bar-tailed but we do get them on my patch. Black-tailed Godwits I get to see in numbers and I love to watch them feeding.

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  4. Lovely to see them up close like this.

    I always wonder what they must be thinking whilst they are being 'ringed'.

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  5. I enjoyed several hours watching marbled godwits and other species last week.

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  6. They are great! I love this post Steward!
    Greetings:)

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  7. They look so delicate. It must be utterly thrilling to hold a wild, pulsating bird in your hands. Great that you could join in the banding.

    I have only held undamaged birds, i.e. that had not stunned themselves or tried to drown in our pool, a few times when they had trapped themselves in our sunroom. The greatest thrill was a peregrine falcon.

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  8. Wow! I would love to be able to get my hands around one of those! I have photographed one orange flagged Godwit up this way - 2 or 3 years ago.

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  9. Nice shots! It's fun to see one of the Marbled Godwits walking about totally oblivious to that orange tag on the leg! The gull looks awfully big compared to the Godwits behind it.

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  10. Lovely birds! They do look delicate with those long legs and slender bill!

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  11. Thanks, Stewart, for correcting me. I must have been fixated on Marbled Godwits, having seen a previous post about.

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  12. Great photos of this interesting process. I must see it done one day. The Godwits are cooperating quite willingly I hope!

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