Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Tan Tanh, Go Cong District, Tien Giang Province, 5 January 2014

On Sunday 5 January Richard Craik and I visited Tan Tanh beach in Co Cong District, Tien Giang Province to look for Spoon-billed Sandpiper. We arrived at low tide after a three hour journey from D2, Saigon. We parked by the noodle shop next to the casuarina grove at the south end of the beach. We had walked only 100 m out onto the mud flats when we found a Nordmann's Greenshank. Within 30 minutes we had found our first two Spoon-billed Sandpipers associating with Red-necked Stints. As the tide came in we eventually saw four Spoon-billed Sandpipers feeding together although I was only able to photograph two together. By 14h00 the tide was rising swiftly and as we scoped a flock of 2,000 Great Knot at a pre-roost roost, we saw three more distant Spoon-billed sandpipers. These three were observed at the same time as the four nearer birds which means the total seen was seven. This was our first visit to the site and next time we plan to visit the main roost on an offshore island. However, it is clear that Spoon-billed Sandpiper is easily found on Tan Tanh beach at low tide. Although the distance from Saigon is not great, the road is small and busy and with a 20 minute ferry crossing on route 50, it makes for up to a six hour round trip plus birding time. Many thanks to Nguyen Hoai Bao who provided instructions to us on how to find the site.  Jonathan C Eames.