TIBETAN SAND PLOVER

I have just returned from a successful twitch for the Tibetan Sand Plover in Broome. I was with Louis Masarei and we saw the bird well, but I wouldn't say it was easy. Here's proof that we saw it:

Actually, it's not proof, because this photo was not taken by me, but by Leo Norman, one of the Two Birders/Two Bikes pair of teenagers who are biking around Australia seeing as many birds as possible and raising money for a school in East Timor. I first met up with them on my recent Pilbara trip, and saw them again in Broome. Here's proof at least that I've actually been in Broome.

The Tibetan Sand Plover has been in Broome for a while, taunting me. Eventually I could stand it no longer and decided I had to go. I knew that I wouldn't be able to find it/identify it/twitch it by myself, so I contacted the Broome Bird Observatory to ask if they could help. Their answer was in essence a polite 'no.' They said seeing the bird depended on my identification skills (doesn't it always?) However, this is probably a fair enough point with waders in general, and sand plovers in particular. I've always had trouble with Greater and what we used to call Lesser (or before that Mongolian) and now Siberian Sand Plovers. Now the Tibetan is somewhere in between. I don't think anyone would say that identifying sand plovers is easy. First, find your sand plover, and don't let him wander into the nearby group of waders. Keep your eyes on him. Observe his bill, his neck, his forehead (we used to say 'front'), his flanks, and his size compared with other sand plovers. People also talk of leg length and colour, but that's too hard for me. I worked out that for me the best method was looking for general size first, then the size and shape of the bill second, then nice clean white flanks third, then having a good squiz at the forehead and neck band, and only then, suggesting that better eyes than mine check it out.

Seeing new birds gets harder and harder as the years go by and my total increases. With each new addition, it is more and more difficult to find new birds to tick. Every rare vagrant becomes even more desirable and I find each failed twitch is even more disappointing. Will I ever have another go at that species? Was that my one and only chance of seeing it? I really wanted to add the Tibetan Sand Plover to my list. People were seeing it every day and I was stuck in Melbourne, turning greener by the day, seeing their success on ebird. When I learnt that there was more than one bird, I thought I really should go and try to see one of them. I asked Louis if he would meet me in Broome and help me. I didn't have to talk too hard to persuade him, and I will be forever grateful to him, because I would not have got the bird by myself.

No sooner had we congratulated ourselves on seeing our bird, than we learnt that there was a Blue-winged Pitta in Broome! It has apparently been there for several months, first seen last March, seen three or four times since, and even captured on camera. In fact the photo makes the bird look far more colourful than it does in my field guide. It has been seen in suburban Broome, amongst houses all seemingly inhabited by noisy barking dogs. Louis and I spent more time looking for the pitta than we did for the sand plover. And of course we didn't see it or hear it. Who knows if it's even still in Broome? Of course it could have been sitting watching us, laughing quietly to itself. Or it could be back home in Thailand or Cambodia or wherever it's come from having quite forgotten its Broome adventures. Most uncharacteristically, I came home not berating my lack of pittas, but celebrating my success with the sand plover. How unlike me! But an excellent twitch, whichever way you look at it.