Migrating Now.

If you live in this part of SE Queensland and want to see the shorebirds in their beautiful breeding colors then you should get out to your favorite wader roost soon. I have received notice from other sites on the Sunshine Coast that some of their shorebirds have already left. I have been out at Inskip Point for the last two mornings and took these photos. There is an early high tide right now and so I got out there VERY early before there were either people or vehicles disturbing the birds. The breeding colors on the birds were amazing. I shall post about individual species next week but I wanted to let everyone know that the birds are there right now and well worth seeing. All these photos were taken right on the Point.
Be patient if they have their backs towards you. They eventually turn around and it's worth waiting for.

Early Morning and High Tide

In the last post I told about counting terns out at Inskip Point in the evening. Jill also did a count of the shorebirds that were roosting on the Point. There was a huge flock of at least 1000 mixed small waders. We saw Red-capped Plovers, Red-necked Stints and Lesser Sand Plovers. Although I always see quite a number of small waders at the Point I had never seen a flock of this size out there. I suggested to Jill that if we wanted better views of these shorebirds we could possibly find them again in the very early morning before any traffic started using the Point. So the next morning we were out there by sun-rise.
Jill has a friend visiting from Switzerland and she came out with us. Trudi was interested and enthusiastic about the birds, the way the sea surrounds the Point on three sides, the way the tide was coming in and undermining the lip of the sand which had been built up over the last month, and everything else which she saw or we pointed out to her. It was no trouble to walk out there with us and she kept up as we walked over the soft sand. She was exactly the kind of visitor it is a delight to show around! Trudi has a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks time and she will be turning 94. What a great example to follow! I hope I can stay as active and involved and enthusiastic as this lovely lady!
Now about the birds. The tides over the last few days have been exceptionally high so that the sand island where the birds usually roost was almost covered. As the water rose around the island the birds flew in to roost on the Point. There were small numbers of Terns but most had already left for their fishing grounds out at sea. There was a flock of 820 small waders. There was also a flock of 1140 mixed larger waders. This was made up mainly of Bar-tailed Godwits, Whimbrels, and Great Knots. The small waders were on the north side of the point and the larger waders were strung out along the south side of the point. Jill counted and I recorded and then I started to move a little closer to get some photos. Before I got anywhere near the birds they all flew up! A White-breasted Sea-Eagle had flown over and frightened them all. With the island almost under-water and the Point a less desirable place they all set off towards Fraser Island and in the direction of Hook Point.
Mainly Godwits and some Great Knots.

The small waders followed them. There is no recorded roost site on Fraser Island in that direction but I have seen birds set off in that direction a number of times.
Part of the flock of small waders - Red-capped Plovers, and Red-necked Stints.
Eastern Curlews were the last to leave the sand island.
Some of them came in and roosted at the very end of the Point and persisted there even with the waves beginning to break over the area.
Curlews and two Common Greenshanks
The tide was coming right over the Point by the time we left and it was still an hour or so until high tide. The barges which carry vehicles to Fraser Island would have had to move before too much longer.

For more bird photographs go to the Bird Photography Weekly.

Smooger Point Shorebird Roost

With a mid-morning tide and the weather bureau promising another dry and sunny day I decided to kayak around to the shorebird roost at Smooger Point yesterday morning. The water was cold! - but apart from that it was beautiful. My friend Sarah came with me because two pairs of eyes are always better when counting shorebirds.

The roost at Smooger Point is not counted regularly and I really wanted to know how many waders and how many different species were using this roost during the winter when most birds have gone to the northern hemisphere to breed.

We put our kayaks in at the Carlo Creek boat ramp and paddled back towards Tin Can Bay. The tide pull inside the bay area is not strong but it makes the paddling a bit easier to go with the tide each way.

The view from Carlo Creek Boat ramp looking back toward Tin Can Bay

Most of the birds were using the exposed beach at the edge of the water. On very high tides they retreat up into quite extensive areas of salt marsh vegetation behind this. There are small mangroves fringing this saltmarsh on the water side which makes it very hard to do a count when the tide is high. Yesterday's tide should have been perfect - but as we paddled within sight of the roosting birds we saw a dingo skulking along behind the roosting birds. The dingo was black so possibly one of the ones that have cross-bred with dogs in this area. The birds, of course, were disturbed. The dingo took off but it took a while for the birds to settle again. As well as this there were a pair of Whistling Kites patrolling the area and later also a Brahminy Kite. Often it is possible to get quite close to roosting birds without disturbing them but not after all this. We used a spotting scope and hoped that they would stay settled for long enough to get a good count. We counted 535 birds and saw local birds - Red-capped Plovers, Pied Oystercatchers, a Little Egret, and a White-faced Heron; - as well as overwintering migrants - Red-necked Stints, Great Knots, Greenshanks, Grey-tailed Tattler, Whimbrels, Bar-tailed Godwits, and Eastern Curlew. The highest counts were the Bar-tailed Godwit – 188, and the Grey-tailed Tattler – 185. The Great Knots were in constant motion feeding along the edge of the water. All the other birds were resting. I have seen birds feeding constantly like this right after they come down from a migration flight but I would think it was too early for this species to be returning. I enjoy monitoring the birds like this because I usually end up with more questions for which to try and find answers.

Some of the roosting shorebirds at Smooger Point yesterday.

Part of the saltmarsh behind the shoreline

Inskip Point

Bird watching at Inskip Point is always interesting. This is just across the channel from the southern end of Fraser Island which is the largest sand island in the world. There are large numbers of terns, and most of the shorebirds found in the bay can also be seen here. There are also shorebirds here which prefer the more open sea coast and so are seldom seen further into the bay.

At high tide there is a large sand bank in the channel just west of the point. The birds use this as a roost. You can see the larger birds quite clearly out there with a spotting scope. However, kayaking over to the sand bank is even more interesting.

When I went out there last August I saw Double-banded Plovers (Charadrius bicinctus) in almost full breeding plumage. At that time they were getting ready to migrate south to New Zealand where they breed during the southern hemisphere summer. Now they are back in non-breeding plumage and will spend the winter here.

Double-banded Plover in breeding plumage (top above) and non-breeding plumage
When I saw them they were roosting with a flock of small waders. They were all very hard to identify as they sat on the sand with their heads tucked down. When they moved it was easier to see them – Red-capped Plovers, Red-necked Stints and Double-banded Plovers. The Red-capped Plovers are resident here, and the Red-necked Stints are juveniles that have not migrated to the northern hemisphere to breed.