Birdgirl's South American Wader Quest Part 3: Guest blog by Mya-Rose Craig

My name is Mya-Rose Craig AKA Birdgirl.  I am 12 years old and live in Somerset, in the UK.  I am obsessed with birds, passionate about conservation and love writing.  This is the third part to my Wader Quest...

The next part of our journey was a 9 week trip to Peru. That was going to be really amazing.  Early in the trip, we birded the Santa Eulalia Canyon in Central Peru, not far from Lima.  We headed off East from Lima in our “hippy van”, which I loved.  We spent two days birding up the canyon seeing a whole load of endemic birds, before arriving at Ticlio Bog which was at 4,900 metres.  Here we saw the endemic White bellied Cinclodes and Junin Canastero.  However, my bird of the day was Diademed Sandpiper-Plover which we had unbelievably good views of. After searching for it for all those hours in Bolivia, it was fantastic to see it here within ten minutes of arriving and so early in our Peru trip.  This was a good contender for my most magical wader.

Diademed Sandpiper-Plover Phegornis mitchellii © Alejandro Tello, Kolibri Expeditions

Also in Peru I saw Killdeer, another bird I feel confident that I could identify if I found one in Britain, as well as Collared Plover, Pied Lapwing, Tawny-throated Dotterel, Blackish Oystercatcher, the rare Andean Avocet, Peruvian Thick-knee, Hudsonian Godwit, Surfbird, Semipalmated and Baird's Sandpipers.

Blackish Oystercatcher Haematopus bachmani; © Alejandro Tello, Kolibri Expeditions

Andean Avocet Recurvirostra andina; © Alex Torres, Kolibri Expeditions

Alex Torres, Andy Marshall, Helena Craig, Mya-Rose Craig and Chris Craig

At Junin Lake

Peruvian Thick-knee Burhinus superciliaris; © Alejandro Tello, Kolibri Expeditions

Hudsonian Godwit Limosa haemastica; © Alejandro Tello, Kolibri Expeditions

Surfbird Aphriza virgata; © Chris Craig

On the way back from South America, we stopped in Atlanta for a day’s birding at some wetlands.  It was early September and we were looking forward to seeing some American Shorebirds.  The first was Short-billed Dowitcher, which I looked at carefully, another candidate for a British record. I didn’t know that I was going to be watching one at home only a few weeks later!

Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus; © Dan Vickers

Mya-Rose Craig, Bill Lotz and Chris Craig © Helena Craig

It was great to see all of those waders and I feel really lucky.  Diademed Sandpiper-Plover is definitely the most magical wader I have seen. 

My Dad loves waders and they are his favourite type of bird.  Because he looks at them so much, he is fantastic at differentiating between them and identifying them.  He has tried to pass on those skills to me and so I love waders too.

© Helena Craig

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig is a young birder, writer and conservationist, her South American wader quest continues in Part Two.

Read her blog at http://birdgirluk.blogspot.co.uk/

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