Ruddy Turnstone, in Jaeren, NO and Kuala Baram, MY

I first saw my Ruddy Turnstone on a little sandbar off Pulau Tiga during a roadtrip with MNS Miri Branch. It looked like a wader gangsta moving very quickly on the sandbar, turning over little corals and picking on insects it found. To me then it was more of a scruffy looking strange wader I've never seen before. I'm glad it made my new wader list.

Back in Kuala Baram, Miri, we've never seen many turnstones probably due to the fact that there weren't many rocks or corals at Kuala Baram, mostly sandy and muddy which is more popular with plovers, stints and the like. Every season the most we've seen were probably 5-10 individuals scattered along the sandspit north of Kuala Baram. Though small in numbers they are regulars here on their path further south.

Yesterday while watching waders at Revtangen, NO way up north, reacquainted with turnstones. Though there were plenty of stones at the beach, they were just too big and heavy for these gangstas. They were busy flipping over seaweed and hunting for juicy morsels underneath it.

Ruddy Turnstones in Revtangen, Jaeren, you try flipping that stone amigo!

The Ruddy Turnstone at Kuala Baram, easy life not having to turn over stones for it's meal.

The waders from Revtangen do not spend their winters in Australia so they do not travel along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway. The waders from Northern Europe instead migrates south via the East Atlantic Flyway to endup in West and South Africa. The ones we see in Kuala Baram travels through the East Asia coast via China, and Hong Kong to winter in Australia.

The world's 9 major flyways from Shorebird (c) 2010 EAAF partnership. Source : http://www.eaaflyway.net/flyways.php

Waders are amazing for their amazing feats of seasonal long distance travel. I have always found their feat not short of miraculous. I hope to be able to share some of the images of these birds from Revtangen with birding buddies in Miri and elsewhere. Though some birds are the same, others perhaps never made it Kuala Baram in their lifetime, it'd definitely be a celebrated rarity when it does!

Dunlin, the most common wader in Europe which I've never seen in Kuala Baram.

Words and images by N. Abghani/NO-2012 unless stated otherwise.
More images of Jaeren birds can be seen at http://norwaybirding.blogspot.no/2012/08/wader-tripping-to-jaern-finally.html