Get Ready!

Get ready all you bird watchers in the northern hemisphere. The shorebirds are returning for the northern summer! When I went out to Inskip Point the other day most of the birds were showing some breeding colors and some were really brightly colored.
The area of sand out on the point is so much smaller after the big wash-out that happened last year. There really is not enough room for people and cars and birds. If you want to see birds roosting right on the point then you must be early! I left home in the dark and was out there just as the sun was coming up. Even then, I wasn't the first out there and the barge was already operating and taking cars over to the Island.
In behind the higher trees the sun was still hidden and the colors were washed out.

A little further along the shoreline the waves were very blue and flecked with foam.

There was a small group of shorebirds and terns right out on the southern end of the point. They were standing on a slightly higher piece of sand where they were still out of the rising tide. I got as close as I could without disturbing them but this put the sun in the wrong direction for bright and beautiful photos. I hoped they might move a little as the tide came in further - but instead they flew off to the sand island in the middle of the Strait.
The Godwits especially were showing bright breeding colors. The males are the brightest with full red fronts. The females show flecks of bright color and a softer wash of color down the front.This photo also has a juvenile Crested Tern (on the left) with black and white "spotty" color and a Caspian Tern on the right. That big red bill is unmistakeable!

The light is very poor in this photo but there is a Whimbrel in the center left with its down-curved bill a big contrast to the Godwits. There are also Great Knots all crowded together.

The Great Knots were heavily spotted down the front and on one of the birds in this photo the bright chevrons of orange color are showing on its back.

Further out on the bay there were groups of Pelicans swimming and Pied Cormorants flying around.

The sand island was packed full of birds - shorebirds and terns.

I hear bush birds as I am walking out to the point but I seldom stop to even look. Instead of sitting in the one place as the shorebirds do they are constantly moving in the bushes - sheer frustration for the photographer wanting a well-posed photo! However, there was a group of little Red-backed Fairy-wrens close to the track and this one stayed still for long enough for a photo.

For more scenery from around the world visit Our World Tuesday 

and for more birds visit Wild Bird Wednesday.