White-breasted Sea-Eagle

The other day at Inskip Point I watched the White-breasted Sea-Eagle in action. It was sitting in a tree at the edge of the sand when I first saw it. I took my eyes off it for one moment to look more carefully at the puddles I was crossing and when I looked back it was gone. Then I saw that it had swooped down into a near-by stretch of deeper water and caught a fish. It then flew back into the trees to eat. I walked slowly up to the trees and looked back to where the eagle had caught the fish. It was several hundred meters away and looking into the sun. The water to my eyes was just a glittering surface of silver. What amazing eye-sight these birds have! I walked slowly up under the trees where the eagle was eating the fish and it took no notice of me. It looked up every now and again but its attention was focused on the sky around it rather than the ground where I stood. It took some time to eat the fish and appeared to tear off quite small pieces at a time. When it had finished it flew off through the trees and out to the open water in the channel.

Beach Stone-curlews

I went out to Inskip Point yesterday and walked through the bush track out to the end of the point. There were the usual interesting numbers of birds there - including a good view of 3 or 4 Black-breasted Button-quail. Like all quail they are great at hiding in even the smallest clump of grass and I was not fast enough with the camera to get any good photos.
When I came out to the sand area at the end of the track I could hear a bird calling from somewhere out ahead of me. It took me a few minutes to spot 3 Beach Stone-curlews taking cover underneath a large tree stump that has come in on the recent high tides. I had seen photos taken a few weeks ago of a juvenile with the resident pair. I was not sure until I got home and put the photos up on the computer if the plumage would still identify the juvenile, but it is still clearly evident. I can't find any reference in my books telling me how long the juveniles retain this distinctive plumage.
I took the photos I wanted and moved back without disturbing the birds too far from the tree stump. I walked around out there for a little while and when I went back towards the bush the birds had still not moved from the tree stump although they were still calling. When I looked up into the trees at the edge of the sand this White-breasted Sea-Eagle was sitting and watching. It was not at all worried about me walking around underneath and let me get right under the tree to take photos. Was this why the curlews were sheltering under the tree stump out on the sand? I would have thought they would be too large for the eagle to touch but I know that lots of shorebirds will disturb as soon as the shadow of a raptor passes over them - regardless of what the raptor may be.