Close Encounter With A Group Of Ruddy Turnstone

Group of Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) looking for food on Thalei Mannar beach in Sri Lanka. These migratory birds to Sri Lanka constantly walking on the beach feeding on fish left over’s all over the fishing village as a small flock. I was lying on the ground and waited till they come close to me.

I was fascinated about the abundant bird life presented in Mannar Island during past few months and some friends started to question me whether I live there. Reason for that is no surprise as I have made about 5 trips within the past 3 months period and every time I went ended up staying more than 3 days due to the fact that internet connection there works superbly (3 G), This has enabled me to do 2 hours of birding each morning and evening while doing my regular work in-between.

Mannar Island is a part of Mannar District, Sri Lanka and linked to the main island by a causeway. Island consists of 3 major cities apart from the small villages all around it. Mannar town, Pesalei , Thalei Mannar is the heart and soul of the island and economy relies on the fishing industry and related activities.

Every Year during the bird migratory season thousands of birds comes this way and this island is one significant place for birds to stopover. Based on the observations I have made during my many visits ideal timing for birding here is ranging from December to early April but keep in mind that December to early January going to be blessed with a heavy downpour of rain.

How we approached the birds

Last few months rather disappointed when it comes to rain as it was a dry season although the birds are around. This had made the bird photography extremely difficult as to approach them is quite hard. I’ll come up with a separate Blog post about the birds observed during this season.

One of the main reasons for me to like Mannar this much is due to the fact that you can always plan the pictures you are going to make out there and can always execute the plan very well. Recent past this has been a major success for me and I liked the outcome. The trip we made to get flamingoes last December was one notable experience as such.

After the trip I went back on 1^st February I thought that is the last of Mannar I am going to do this season as we stayed about 4 nights. However my friend Ifham called me soon after I returned and asked whether we can make a trip back to Mannar, I thought about it twice but I am always tempted to go back, my greed to get back there and try more photo opportunities made me said “YES”, This is after spending nearly 5 days until 4^th February and now I am again back there on 15^th.

After the mission

14^th Night has been a long one for me as we had a family gathering at home and I ended up sleeping late around 3 am, However as planned I got up around 8:15 am as soon as Ifham called me. I had a shower and came out and Ifham is already at my place, I had to keep him waiting for few minutes as I packed the last moment stuff I need to bring along and we set off from Katunayaka at around 9 am.

After few stops on the way and lunch stopover somewhere near Tantirimale we reached Mannar around 3:15 pm. Ifham had already booked the Four Tees rest Inn, one of the most sort after accommodation in mMannarIsland specially for birders. The owner Lawrance didn’t know I was coming back and I made a last minute surprise call to him when we were close to murunkan. We quickly unloaded our bags and set off to this village in Thalei Mannar called “Urumalei” (Location Map) which we had discussed on the way to pay a visit in the evening to try our luck.

It was really surprising to see how soon the place has dried off within a week, the birds I was expecting to see wasn’t there anymore but noticed immediately a big group of Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) moving around the beach looking for fish left over’s.

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) feeding on a dead fish

Straight away we decided to approach the birds and try our luck as this is going to be the only species we are going to focus on this evening. We got dressed up with our hardcore birding cloths and started to approach the birds.

Initially we didn’t have any clear idea how ruddy will react to our approach but we continued to do belly crawling along the beach. Soon we realized that they don’t seems to care about us as long as we keep low on the ground, we were over the moon and started to plan out shots and angles with the good golden light about to hit the area.

Ruddy was moving all over the place and we were crawling after them all over as well. Finally the angles and light was right there and we got really close to the birds and started to shoot tons of pictures of them to get the best out of the moment.

Rest of the story is history and we managed to get really close behavioral shots, and by the time we finished shooting as light faded out felt really exhausted and tired as we were belly crawling all the time on wet and dirty beach among fish leftover’s

Classified as Least Concern (IUCN 3.1), this bird is highly migratory species (Long Distance migrant) breeding in northern parts of Europe, Asia and North America. This bird migrates to southern coastlines worldwide during the winter. The pictures I have got here is of the Non-breeding plumage or the winter plumage.

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) looking for food

Couple of Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) looking for food

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Ruddy Turnstone population is currently very stable. Environment Canada surveys suggest that they have in fact decreased in abundance relative to the 1970s, and face a variety of threats during migration and winter. They estimate that the Canadian population is 100,000 – 500,000 adults. The Canadian Wildlife Service estimates that the worldwide population of Ruddy Turnstones is 449,000, and that 235,000 are breeding in North America while the rest are breeding throughout the Arctic regions. They are very common and widespread. Their remote breeding range and widespread winter range should help them remain a common species. (source : wikipedia )