Curlew Sandpiper

It has been raining for the last nine days! Some days have also been extremely windy. We are lucky not to have had the extreme weather that other parts of southern Queensland has been having but we have still had a total of just over 300mm of rain in this time. None of this weather is any good at all for kayaking out on the bay even though there were very good high tides during this period. The only day that looked good was also the day that a tsunami generated by the Chilean earthquake was predicted to hit the east coast of Australia. I was doubtful that any but an extreme situation would impact on the waterways inside the bay - but no-one had any idea of what height the waves might reach. Since I usually kayak by myself I decided to play it safe and not go out. The tsunami just didn't eventuate so by afternoon when the tide was low I decided to go out to Inskip and see what shorebirds were around on the low tide.
The shorebirds are all getting ready for their northern migration and so are extremely busy feeding whenever they can. By walking slowly I was able to get quite close to this Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) without disturbing it. It just kept feeding across the sand and mud. Some of the time it probed with its beak down into the water - some of the time it just pecked off the surface of the mud - and sometimes its beak pushed down its full length into the mud. It was not showing any red breeding color that will eventually cover all its front.
At low tide the sand flats out at Inskip are always covered with small creatures. Although the soldier crabs are always there in huge numbers most of the shorebirds ignore them unless they find very small ones. (Bar-tailed Godwit and Silver Gull surrounded by crabs.)
I also found a little trickle of water running down into the lower parts of the sand flats with dozens of these tiny fish swimming up it. I am not a 'fisherperson' so have no idea what they
are.
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