Sunday, December 12, 2010

Inskip Point

Inskip Point can be a very good place to see shorebirds. When the tide is very high the sand island out in the Strait where they usually roost is not big enough for them all to find a place to roost so they often use the Point itself. However, there is a lot of human disturbance there so the only way you can be sure of finding them is to choose a high tide early in the morning before there are too many people around.
It was another gray day with the promise from the weather bureau of more rain. I took a rain coat and bags to put the camera into out of the weather - if needed! The light was bad - so all of the photos have been adjusted to make them lighter. As soon as I walked out onto the sand I could see quite a large flock of Terns. I walked closer and saw Crested Terns, a couple of Caspian Terns, Common Terns and Little Terns. ( All photos enlarge when clicked on.)
The Terns were standing on the lip of sand just before it dropped down to the water. Then I noticed that in behind them and closer to the water were a number of shorebirds. Every time the waves broke they had to move a little. These are Crested Terns in full breeding plumage in the foreground of this photo with a shadowy line of shorebirds behind them.
All the birds moved again and I was able to get photos of the shorebirds without the Terns standing in front. There were numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits and also Great Knots and Curlew Sandpipers. The Bar-tailed Godwits are the largest birds with slightly up-turned beaks. The Great Knots are smaller with straight beaks and the Curlew Sandpipers are a little smaller again with slightly down-turned beaks.
The birds all started to move again and when I looked around there was a man walking along the edge of the water. The birds all flew up and some of them flew to the other side of the Point and roosted there at the edge of the water. The man walking continued around the Point and then started back along the other side where the birds were now roosting. This time when they flew they left! Some went out to the sand island and some went over the channel towards Fraser Island. It's not easy for shorebirds when there are tourists and fishermen all around!
For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

18 comments:

  1. Great photos Inskip looks great in all kinds of weather.

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  2. Hi Neil, but you've got to admit that you get better photos out there when it's nice and sunny :-)

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  3. Lovely birds and photos!
    Too bad about the people walking and disturbing them. :/

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  4. HI Nicole, it's a very popular tourist area and most seem unaware of the shorebirds.

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  5. I like the first photo enlarged where all the yellow beaks and some orange ones stand out.
    What a variety of shorebirds - it's always hard to understand that people just walk by and disturb them...

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  6. Hi Dreamfalcon, I should have said that the Crested Terns have yellow beaks and the Caspian Terns have red/orange ones. I must try to get photos to do a post just on Terns asap!

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  7. Mick- these photos are outstanding! Love the way you've framed them.

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  8. Mick -- terrific composition with the Godwits in the background and the ground level view.

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  9. If I want to see something like this I have to go 6h by car and I might have chosen a bad day so they are all gone when I arrive.
    :(
    You have no idéa how lucky you are. :)

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  10. Hi NatureFootstep - I really do know how lucky I am to live in a place like this! I can't think of anywhere better - and I have moved around over a fair bit of the world!

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  11. Beautiful shots of the Terns and the shorebirds Mick! It's great to see all the different Terns next to each other for comparison.

    And the shorebirds are an amazing bunch too. I really like the third photo with the Great Knot's wings up!

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  12. ...you live in a great place! With all those beautiful shorebirds so close...I'd go crazy! Lovely photos too...

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  13. Thanks for your comments Larry and Kelly. It's always great to see lots of migratory birds. You know then that they have made another successful migration.

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  14. Great images. It is fun to get a comparison of plumage, size, bills though you images--a nice place to come when it gets cold here!

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  15. Thanks for your comments Vickie.

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  16. Inskip looks a special place for birding Mick. We have the same problem with people disturbing shorebirds all the time. How would they like it if everytime they settled down to sleep or feed someone came along to move them on elsewhere?

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  17. Hi Phil, I guess people are the same all over the world. Disturbance is one reason why so many species are on the verge of becoming extinct!

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