Massed Shorebirds

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

I went out to Inskip Point soon after sunrise this morning. At that hour of the morning I was lucky to find shorebirds and terns all over the point and no people to disturb them. Even the car ferry for Fraser Island arrived after I did.
I estimated there were 1000+ shorebirds strung out along the water line on the southern side of the point and flocks of terns and small shorebirds roosting in the dry sand of the point in among the flotsam that is always washed up and left by the tide.
At first it seemed that there were only Bar-tailed Godwits in the flock on the southern side. Some of them were getting a faint wash of red breeding color down their frontsGradually it was possible to see others. There were Common Greenshanks roosting a little away from the Godwits and standing in slightly deeper water.
Then I saw slightly smaller birds in among the Godwits and I focused in on that part of the flock.
It was easy to see Great Knots. Some of them were getting their more heavily marked breeding colors. (Great Knots and one Bar-tailed Godwit in the rear.)
There were also numbers of Curlew Sandpipers.
They are never as easy to see as they like to roost even more closely among the Godwits. Sometimes all you can see is a smaller set of legs and part of a small bird in behind the Godwit.

Migrating Shorebirds

I went out to Inskip point the other morning. I thought that I was early enough to be the first out there but there was already a vehicle and boat trailer sitting out on the end of the point.
There were lots of birds out on the sand island and enough roosting on the point to make it interesting.
Most of the larger birds such as Bar-tailed Godwits and Eastern Curlews have left and the ones still here are possibly juveniles that will spend the winter here. I had seen very few Grey-tailed Tattlers (Tringa brevipes) when I was last out here a couple of weeks ago but now there were good numbers of them and most were in breeding plumage.
Although some were roosting by themselves at the edge of the water others were in among the Bar-tailed Godwits. This photo shows the considerable size difference between the two species.
This photo shows a Grey-tailed Tattler on the left, a Bar-tailed Godwit in behind and a Great Knot in the front. The Great Knot is in breeding plumage.
I saw a couple of Curlew Sandpipers also in breeding plumage in among the Bar-tailed Godwits. They are not easy to see when they walk in among the much larger birds.
For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

Shorebirds and Tides

A friend told me a few days ago that they had been up to Boonooroo and seen good numbers of shorebirds roosting there right in front of the houses on the shoreline. I decided to go up and see for myself this morning. However, I had forgotten just how little shoreline is left when the tides are high. I went to the places where I had previously seen the shorebirds and all I saw were huge flocks of birds flying elsewhere.
I don't know this area well so I drove down every road that I could find that went towards the shoreline. Eventually I found the birds. They were roosting right in front of some houses. The water was a little shallower and the grass at the edge was low enough that the birds could get up on to it. There was a huge flock packed tightly together.
Most of the flock was made up of Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica baueri) but there were some Eastern Curlews (Numenius madagascariensis) standing further out in the water on a sandbank. The water was not too deep for the Curlews but the few Godwits with them were not comfortable with the water depth and soon flew off.
Even close to the shoreline the Godwits looked almost as if they were swimming.
There were a number of Great Knots (Calidris tenuirostris) also packed in tightly with the Godwits. Great Knots look only a little shorter than the Godwits but the plumage color is slightly different and their beaks are straight and black.
For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

More Gray Days.

We've had several days of dry weather but unfortunately there are still lots of gray clouds around. When I walked out to the Mullens shorebird roost this morning and yesterday morning I saw lots of birds - but gray skies and gray/brown birds on gray/brown sand don't make for great photos.
There were lots of birds on the far side of the bay. The larger birds - Godwits and Curlews - were further down the bay where the water is deeper.
Many of the smaller birds were on a sand bank at the shallow end of the bay.
There were large numbers of Lesser Sand-Plovers in among the other birds. They were standing in the shallow water in front of the Bar-tailed Godwits.
They were also out on a sand bank with some Pacific Golden Plovers.
There was also a small flock of Great Knots.
There is still a lot of fresh water running into the bay from the recent heavy rains. This fresh water is stained with the vegetation it filters through and comes out colored dark orange/red. I am still trying to get a photo that shows all the tints of red as the water gets deeper out from the shoreline.
For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

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.

What a difference...

...a day makes! Yesterday was overcast and light rain kept falling. When I went for a walk to the Mullens bird roost it was difficult to even see the birds. There was quite a large flock of Godwits in the distance but the photos I took were almost gray - like the day! This photo looked better in 'grayscale' rather than in a washed-out color. (All photos enlarge when clicked on.)
Today was bright and sunny, which was lucky as it was the day for the QWSG shorebird count and I have to kayak over to the site I count.
I saw two Little Egrets roosting in mangrove trees. They prefer mangroves with open branches low down so they can sit and watch for whatever might be coming. This one let me kayak quite close without moving at all.
There were quite large flocks of Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel, and Godwits on the sandbank that the birds use on tide heights like this morning. There is a lot of vegetation on the sandbank so the birds are not easy to see. When I focused in on the Godwits I also saw a flock of smaller birds - Great Knot. I have not seen flocks of Great Knots on this roost before so I am wondering if this is just a flock passing through on their way to somewhere south of here. It will be interesting to see if they are there next time I go over to the roost in a couple of weeks time.
For more bird photos visit the Birds Photography Weekly.

Returning Migrants

When I went out to Inskip Point last Thursday morning there were still no large flocks of returning migrant shorebirds. However, there were small numbers of shorebirds that would definitely be interesting to photograph. The birds were having a hard time. First there were fishermen very close in to the sand island and all the birds flew up in alarm from there. Some of them came in and roosted on the end of the point where the traffic drives out to take the car ferry to Fraser island. However, once again they were sent flying by a tourist vehicle that decided it wanted to stop right in among the roosting birds! This was the result! All photos enlarge when clicked on. Some of the birds eventually settled down again on the sand. Most were Crested Terns but sheltering in behind them was a small flock of mixed shorebirds that I decided would definitely be interesting to photograph.I first sorted out which were Bar-tailed Godwits and tried to see if there were any still showing signs of breeding plumage - which would definitely indicate they were returning migrants. Even the Godwits present some challenges for ID when there is often a huge difference in size between the large females and the much smaller males. The females also have a much longer bill than the males.The next birds that caught my eye were Plovers still in almost full breeding plumage. I focused in on them and tried to get good photos for ID. At first I thought I was looking at Pacific Golden Plovers - which are the most common of the Plovers around here. However, these ones did not have any hint of gold about the plumage and the edges of the feathers were white tipped instead of cream/buff. Also they looked considerably bigger standing next to the Godwits. I realized these were Grey Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola). We never see Grey Plovers further up the bay.
There were still smaller birds to ID and these looked like Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris). However, looking closer I also saw a Red Knot (Calidris canutus). This bird is easy to ID when it has some of the red breeding color still showing! Also it is a slightly smaller bird and its bill is shorter. One of the Great Knot had flags on its right leg and a metal band on its left. I have sent off details of this bird and hope to hear back eventually just where it was flagged and banded.For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

Inskip Point

Yesterday was such a beautiful day - sunny again and not too much wind - so I decided to take the kayak and paddle out to the sand island at Inskip Point. Most times when I go out there I just take the camera and have a great time with all the photo opportunities. This time I took my spotting scope as well as I hoped to get a count of the birds. As I paddled out I could see large areas where the sand was closely covered with birds and was considering where I could get out onto the sand to set up the scope or if I should just drift in closely and stay in the kayak and count without the scope. However, it was to be neither! A couple of men came by in a small netting boat and first rushed close by the end of the island and put up all the birds, there then went around the other side and came close in while they let out the net along the entire length of the island. The result was that most of the birds flew up and I had views of several flocks with hundreds of birds in each. Some very small flocks came back down but most flew off to find somewhere that they would not be disturbed.
Even the pelicans decided to stalk off and swim out away from the disturbance. (I counted 60 pelicans in this flock.) However, they soon realized that as the net was taken in again there would possibly be small fish discarded. They came back to the island and walked across the sand... then went into the water on the other side and made for the boat. I was not close enough to see how many fish they actually got but I would say that these pelicans are used to looking for free feeds this way.
I took photos of the small flocks of shorebirds that had settled back down on both ends of the island. When I got home and put the photos up on to the computer screen I saw that I had taken photos of another Ruddy Turnstone in among the Eastern Curlews and the single Godwit in the photo.
The flock at the other end of the island was mainly Godwits but there were some Knots as well. I am still not really sure of ID-ing Great Knot from Red Knot - especially when the photos were taken against the light! I think that the Knot with red down the front and belly area are Red Knot. I welcome help with this ID.

Bad Weather - Beaut Birding...

...and after all, what enthusiastic birder would let a little thing like rain put them off looking for birds! In one direction the clouds looked rather threatening -
- and in the other direction the rain was falling.
However, we only had to run back to the kayaks once to quickly find rain proof cases and covers for cameras and other gear.
The birding was certainly worth it. There were the usual large numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits and Eastern Curlew, but we had come out especially to see what smaller birds were also there. We found quite a large flock of Great Knots. This was the first flock we had seen here this season but it is such a large site that it is certainly possible we had just missed them. There were also flocks of Greater Sand-Plovers, Lesser Sand-Plovers, Red-necked Stints and Red-capped Plovers. The birding books give all the fine details to distinguish Greater from Lesser Sand-Plovers, but the best way is to watch them side by side as we were able to do today.

A mixed flock of Great Knots, Lesser and Greater Sand-Plovers, and Bar-tailed Godwits

Counting a mixed flock like this is a special challenge. Today we were just looking.

Red-necked Stints and Red-capped Plovers are such tiny birds but let you get quite close
before they show signs of being disturbed.