My South American Wader Quest Part 2

Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Photograph copyright Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project

I have a real connection and love of waders. They are my dad, Chris Craig’s favourite bird groups and through years of watching and studying them, he is amazing at identifying them. That love for waders has rubbed off on me.

So, as well as being a young birder, young conservationist, young speaker and young writer, I am also Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day so that I can help save waders.

In October 2014, I also wrote a 3 part guest blog for Wader Quest called “Birdgirl’s South American Wader Quest”.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, La Cumbre, Bolivia
Photograph and copyright Helena Craig

Next, was another six week trip to Bolivia, again chasing endemics. Here, we added Andean Lapwing and Puna Plover in the first few days, two very lovely birds. 

Heading from the Paraguay border back towards Santa Cruz, we stopped at a lake in the Andes Foothills. Sandro, our guide saw a wader a long way off. He knew it was new for him but had no idea what it was. We went down to the edge of the water and Dad immediately identified the bird as a Least Sandpiper but then started shouting “ow, ow, ow!”. Sandro then started pointing at Dad’s trousers and shouting “chiwowa!” and we realised Dad was covered up to his knees in hundreds of red ants and was accidently standing on an ants’ nest. Dad and Sandro tried to swipe the ants off Dad, but then they both got covered. Mum and I stayed well away as we weren’t going to risk getting ants on us. When we then ran back to the van, Herman our driver couldn’t help but laugh at Dad and Sandro, as they tried to get the ants out of their pants.

Find out which was my most magical wader in South America in Birdgirl’s South American Wader Quest Part 2 http://bit.ly/18sRZfd

About the writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She was the youngest person to see 3,000 birds in 2013 and she hopes to see her 4,000th bird in Antarctica, her 7th continent, in 2015. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter