Yesterday morning was a perfect day out at Inskip Point. This photo was taken looking south towards Bullock Point where the barges anchor when not in use.
There were numbers of people at the point fishing and walking around but there were only a few vehicles driving out to the barges to go over to Fraser Island. Because it was high tide there were large numbers of shorebirds roosting on the sand island out in the Strait. There was also quite a large flock of terns roosting right on the point and they kept being disturbed by people walking and driving close to them. I saw Crested Terns in the flock and one Caspian Tern.
I walked over the sand to see if I could find the flock of Double-banded Plovers that I had seen there a few weeks ago. They were just as hard to see as last time and only became visible from a distance when they moved. The rest of the time they were sitting down in among the vehicle tracks.
There were more birds in bright breeding plumage than last time, however, many of these still looked a little 'smudgy' around the edges. There were a few birds with hardly any signs of color and I think these are possibly juveniles. There were also a few with some color but without the distinctive bands which the adults develop.
Scattered among the other birds I saw a few Red-necked Stints. They looked very tiny when compared with the Double-banded Plovers.
There were numbers of people at the point fishing and walking around but there were only a few vehicles driving out to the barges to go over to Fraser Island. Because it was high tide there were large numbers of shorebirds roosting on the sand island out in the Strait. There was also quite a large flock of terns roosting right on the point and they kept being disturbed by people walking and driving close to them. I saw Crested Terns in the flock and one Caspian Tern. 
I walked over the sand to see if I could find the flock of Double-banded Plovers that I had seen there a few weeks ago. They were just as hard to see as last time and only became visible from a distance when they moved. The rest of the time they were sitting down in among the vehicle tracks.
There were more birds in bright breeding plumage than last time, however, many of these still looked a little 'smudgy' around the edges. There were a few birds with hardly any signs of color and I think these are possibly juveniles. There were also a few with some color but without the distinctive bands which the adults develop.
Scattered among the other birds I saw a few Red-necked Stints. They looked very tiny when compared with the Double-banded Plovers.
Nice Plovers and Stints, but went blind looking for Caspian ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony, but yes, much too far away to distinguish flight patterns in that photo!
ReplyDeleteVery dapper little birds those plovers! That last pic is very useful for comparing the relative sizes of plover and stint.
ReplyDeleteHi Snail, Yes, I am always on the look-out for pics where I have size comparisons with the shorebirds. When there are literally hundreds of birds together there's got to be a quicker way than looking for details of plumage.
ReplyDeleteHi Halcyon I agree!
ReplyDelete