Thursday, November 5, 2009

Inskip Point Attempted Count

It was another beautiful day yesterday and I decided to kayak out to the sand island at Inskip Point and try again to get a count of the shorebirds out there. This time no fishermen came by in their noisy boats. Most of the birds were all strung out along the tide line. (Part of the flock)
I took a series of photos of these so that if the worst happened I could do a partial count on the photos. I also looked over the rest of the island and started counting the Terns, Gulls, Cormorants, Pelicans and Eastern Curlews which were off by themselves. I was just about to start on the main flock when the flock of 50 plus pelicans suddenly flew up and low over the roosting shorebirds. They must have sounded like jumbo jets taking off over the much smaller birds. The inevitable happened - EVERYTHING took off!
The pelicans had spotted fish in the water just on the other side of the main roosting flock. They came down in the water and splashed, and flew, and jumped and practically walked on the water to get to the fish. No polite manners here! Every bird for itself!
The Cormorants joined in and dived under to get their share.
Finally the Silver Gulls joined the rush and picked off any small fish which had tried to escape by coming into the shallows.
It was an interesting bit of bird interaction - but NOT a count!

6 comments:

  1. I can just imagine the sound of it all.

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  2. Hi Mosura, yes it was noisy. I was watching the main show in front but then jumped when some flew in behind me and starting squabbling over something in the shallow water there.

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  3. Love a Feeding Frenzy, Mick.
    Brilliant report - takes me right there! Thanks.
    Cheers
    Denis

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  4. Thanks Denis, Pelicans sure look different in such a situation from what they do when they are gliding along so elegantly!

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  5. ......wow....the sheer number of birds is spectacular, and your photos capture the sight so well. I'd give up the count just to experience all that activity. Love all the photos, when enlarged, they are incredible.

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  6. Hi Kelly, I'm afraid I often give up the count in favor of photos - consequently I'm not getting the data that is needed if this site is to be properly looked after. I'm trying!!

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