Dotterel - Charadrius morinellus
Pictures by Ray Tipper - More about Ray...
More about Ray Tipper
Ray Tipper began his birding on the North Kent Marshes at the age if eleven. He left his native Britain in 1973 spending most of the next 22 years in Hong Kong. As a trustee of WWF he was intimately involved with its renowned Mai Po Nature Reserve. It was in Hong Kong that Ray turned to bird photography, which quickly became his major interest. He gained associateship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1990, and his photographs appear in journals and books throughout the world. Ray guides specialist birdwatching and bird photography tours and since 1997 has led more than 100 tours in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Madagascar. He now lives in the Algarve, where his intimate knowledge of its birds has been recognised by his appointment as Chairman of the Portuguese Rarities Committee.
Juvenile, Vale Santo, Sagres
The Dotterel is one of the less easily seen of Europe’s waders, breeding as it does on remote, sparsely vegetated uplands and mountain plateaux in the arctic tundra and alpine zones. Blessed with a striking and colourful plumage, rôles in this species are largely reversed with the female sporting the brighter colours and initiating mating while the male takes on the incubation of the eggs and guarding the young. The winter range is restricted to the almost equally remote steppes of Northern Spain and the alpine ranges of North Africa. In the Algarve, Dotterels are found practically exclusively in Vale Santo, Sagres which is a stop-over site for individuals or small trips on their southerly migration in September.
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