Bar-tailed Godwits

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

Holidays are great but it's also great to get home again! My return home was in time to see some of the shorebirds before they took off on their northern migration. This is the time when the birds look their best in bright new breeding colors.
I was out at Inskip Point very early in the morning on a high tide and was able to photograph some of the birds in a very large flock that was roosting there. I could have spent a lot more time photographing the birds but 4 wheel drive vehicles came out and soon the whole flock disturbed and flew off. It is legal for vehicles to drive out there - but - the roosting birds must find it a great nuisance to be disturbed.
As usual Bar-tailed Godwits made up most of the flock.
When I got close enough I could see that there were all shades of color amongst the flock.
Some were without any breeding colors. A bird looking like this will possibly be a young one and won't migrate this season.
This one had good bright color and from this back view you can see just how much fat they put on before migration.
The color was very patchy on some birds.
The birds with the brightest color seemed to want to hide amongst the flock. This bird had the brightest color of all that I photographed.
When the Godwits leave here they fly non-stop to the Yellow Sea area. This is a distance of approx. 10,300 Kms. They rest there for a month to 6 weeks and then make another non-stop flight to Alaska - a further distance of 6,500 Kms. They breed in Alaska and won't return here until September. This is another long flight of 11,700 Kms. and is also non-stop. These amazing flights were first documented in 2007 when birds were satellite tagged by scientists from New Zealand, Australia and the USGS. Details can be found here.

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.

Norman Point

There was a bank of cloud covering the sun early the other morning and I was able to take some photos into the brightness of the eastern sky. (I have put a border on the photos as they don't show up well against the background color of the blog.)
There were mainly gulls and terns right on the point but a little south there were numbers of Bar-tailed Godwits and a few Eastern Curlews.
This is the area where are a number of boats are moored. I counted 7 but as no-one was around the birds were not being disturbed. Eastern Curlews don't stay around too long as soon as they see people. This one walked away from me towards the south but did not disturb and fly.
These Godwits were resting but kept an eye open to see what I was doing.
This one was preening with that long bill. It's amazing how they manage to use it successfully on even feathers close to the neck. The bird was still showing faint washes of red color from the breeding plumage. This will soon all disappear.
This post is for Scenic Sunday and Bird Photography Weekly.

Norman Point

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

Yesterday morning I drove along the Tin Can Bay foreshore to Norman Point. The tide was high so it all looked very beautiful but there are seldom any shorebirds to see except right at the point.

As I looked east I could see that the sandbank right at the end of the point was almost under water but there was still a group of birds roosting there. As usual there were numbers of Silver Gulls, but also a small group of Gull-billed Terns and about 10 or 12 Bar-tailed Godwits.

Another small group of Godwits flew by but continued north to find a better roosting place. The Godwits here now are birds that are too young to have made the migration north to breed this year. Usually birds from the point will move just a short distance to the sand directly south of the point but there were two boats anchored there yesterday so the birds were not going anywhere near that area. One was a houseboat so it is possible they have taken up semi-permanent residence. People and shorebirds don't mix well.

A Falling Tide

I always enjoy walking along the edge of the bay in the early morning and yesterday morning was particularly enjoyable. It was still cool enough that walking was enjoyable and there was a little breeze to keep the worst of the biting insects away. The tide had been high an hour or so before I got down there and the sand flats were beginning to be exposed. I had walked along to a little rocky inlet where the shoreline turns. I was looking to see if I could see the pair of Pied Oystercatchers that often sit out there when I realized that there were a lot of small shorebirds out there as well. The only problem about trying to see shorebirds that early in the morning is that the shore runs north and south so looking out over the bay is looking directly into the bright morning light. I walked out towards the birds and they were almost in silhouette against the light.
I slowly went closer but at an angle so that the light would be 'side on' and watched for signs that I was not disturbing them. I had just got into a good position and had taken a few photos which showed that they were mostly Lesser Sand-Plovers when there was a dog's bark from further up the beach and some more morning walkers passed along the beach behind me. Suddenly the birds all flew up and out across the water. There must have been at least two hundred in the flock. Most of them had been invisible hidden amongst the rocks.
I turned to go back closer to the shoreline when I realized that there was another group of birds on another sandbank that had come out of the water by this time. There were more Lesser Sand-Plovers as well as a number of Bar-tailed Godwits. It was interesting to see the difference in size between the two.
The tide was going out quite fast now across the sand flats and as it fell the larger shorebirds moved out into the water to hunt for food. Every now and then I could see their bills probing down into the water after some piece of suitable food. The exposed sand was still covered with a sheen of water and there was movement all over as the smaller shorebirds pecked at the soft sand.
If the weather stays calm then it should be perfect for kayaking in the same area in a couple of days time.
For more bird photos visit the Bird Photography Weekly.

Bar-tailed Godwits

I went out to Inskip Point the other afternoon at low tide to see what birds were feeding out on the sand flats. I saw Eastern Curlews, Whimbrels, Bar-tailed Godwits, Lesser Sand-Plovers, Red-necked Stints, and Red-capped Plovers. There were not great numbers of any shorebirds but this might have been because it was not a really low tide and I could not get out around the sand island.
I saw this male Bar-tailed Godwit (Linosa lapponica baueri) showing new plumage all over and splotches of red down its front. Before it migrates this red color will completely cover the front.

I also got a number of photos of other Godwits probing for small sea creatures deep in the sand with their long beaks. Wherever there is water the sand is very soft and the birds can get their beaks down a long way.

This post is for World Bird Wednesday.

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.