A big number of wader birds in passage in the wetland of Gautegiz Arteaga

A group of mixed wader birds (Common Greenshanks, Dunlins and Sanderlings).

The wetland of Gautegiz Arteaga has dawned full of migratory birds today, 16th May. Besides the big number, it stands out the variety of watched species. There were Common Redshanks and Greenshanks, Sanderlings, Dunlins, Common Ringed Plover, Ruffs, Green Sandpipers and among them, a singular species, a specimen of Temminck's Stint.

Temminck's Stint in the forefront together with other wader birds.

Temminck's Stint is a wader bird similar to Little Stint but with shorter legs and yellowish colour. This bird breeds in the Arctic, mainly in the mid-north of Scandinavia and in the northern coast of Russia, preferring the less exposed areas of fjords, inlets, deltas and marshes. He also breeds in higher inland areas up to 1200 meters.

Temminck's Stint

In Urdaibai it is a very unusual and hardly watched bird during the migratory passages, and always solitary specimens going with other wader birds with similar size as Dunlins, Sanderlings or Common Ringed Plovers. He avoids beaches and he prefers marshes, inland wetlands, estuaries and bank rivers during his migrations. It is believed that the majority of these wintering birds is concentrated in areas of Sahel and in the savannas of Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Chad and Niger and in the East in Egypt, Iraq and the East coast of Africa (Cramp).

Together with these interesting wader birds have appeared 28 Spoonbills, several Purple Herons, an Osprey and other birds in migration.

Feeding on the mud

Common Ringed Plovers

Spoonbills resting on the wetland

The wetland this morning