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.

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.

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.

Shorebirds at Mullens

It was an absolutely perfect morning with quite a high tide so I decided to kayak around to the Mullens shorebirds roost. The birds were standing at the edge of the water in several places around the bay but none of them settled for long. I could not get close to any of them although I could not see what was making them fly off. When I first got there they were spread out at the northern end of the site which is not the place they usually prefer. Then they flew off to the southern end and then came back again later. None of these photos show any detail on the birds but rather show the kind of habitat they prefer in this area. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Part of the flock at the northern end of the bay.
Mainly Gull-billed Terns and Eastern Curlews in silhouette against the light.
Part of the flock of Gull-billed Terns - quite a large number since breeding inland earlier this year.
Pacific Golden Plover - very difficult to see among the saltmarsh plants. These and the other smaller waders just disappear among the plants when disturbed.
Flying Past.
Spread out on the south-west of the bay.

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.