Broome 2017 _ Wave The Waders Goodbye _ Day 03

The third day at Broome started with an early morning, rising-tide Mangrove Walk at Little Crab Creek towards the southern end of Roebuck Bay. The walk into the mangroves ends at a "lookout" facing mudflats giving relatively close views of the usual suspects and the few birds of Australia's only known Common Redshanks colony. We didn't see them but on our way back to the vehicle, we saw that the entire bird population of the bay appeared to disappear or be in a total panic. Had to be a raptor somewhere. We scanned the skies for about a minute until a Peregrine Falcon was spotted crossing the bay about a kilometre offshore. I happened to get some images that were in-focus and it was later identified as one of the two migratory northern hemisphere forms of the Peregrine Falcon; Falco peregrinus japonensis. The other is calidus. That was exciting.

The usual afternoon wader watch at some of the roosts near the BBO showed Sooty Oystercatchers. These are the northern race Haematopus fuliginosus ophthalmicus which has a bright yellow ring around the eye.

Day 03

Nankeen Night Heron Nycticorax caledonians juvenile. Probably the same bird as Day 1

White-breasted Woodswallow Artamus leucorynchus

Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus calidus

Sooty Oystercatcher Haematopus fuliginosus ophthalmicus

and friends...
Australian Pied Oystercatcher Haematopus longirostris
Bar-Tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica both in breeding and non-breeding plumage
Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
Silver Gull Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae

Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus
Yellow JX was a pretty interesting bird. We discovered it whilst wader watching and soon were aware it was not behaving normally; just standing on the rocks doing ... well, nothing really, unlike every other Whimbrel in the bay. A few photos soon showed it had a radio transmitter on it. Later we found out that Chris Hassell's team had caught the bird the previous evening and placed a transmitter on it, a sort of backpack arrangement. I guess the bird found it uncomfortable or was just recovering from the capture  or both. Anyway, the bird remained there for several hours into dark but was gone the next morning and the transmitter was found on it's way to the northern hemisphere within a short time. This shows that us amateurs can contribute to projects by being observant, noting when things aren't right and telling the people in charge. Fortunately, all involved had tea together that evening!!

Broome 2017 _ Wave The Waders Goodbye _ Day 02

Chris Hassell works for the Global Flyway Network. He bands birds during our summer, records the birds that are present at Broome then spends weeks in China looking for banded birds on their way to their breeding grounds. This is to monitor world populations of migratory shorebirds. Each bird is given two coloured flags on each leg plus a flag which has 6 positions it can be in [top, middle, bottom on each leg]. Thus birds are individually marked. Below are some examples. But first you have to find the birds in this lot!

And then something like a Peregrine Falcon or Whistling Kite or Brahminy Kite or Brown Goshawk spook them and they ALL take off. Back to square 1.

Day 02

Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica 
1BLLR [flag in position 1 on top on left leg; blue, light green, light green, red]

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
1BRRR. Images don't have to be in focus to ID the birds!

Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
1RYYB

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
5BBYL
Sooty Oystercatcher Haematopus fuliginosus
Yellow W5

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris
?YLYR

Also in this shot are:
Little Tern Sternula albifrons
Red Knot Calidris canutus
Lesser Crested Tern Thalasseus bengalensis
Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii

Broome Roadtrip 11

Another visit whilst in Albany took me to the mudflats of Rushy Point at Little Grove across Princes Royal Harbour from Albany CBD. As it was low tide, I walked out a few hundred metres onto the mud to see what was about. Suddenly all the birds were up and swiftly disappeared. This usually means a raptor is about so I scanned the horizons and saw nothing. "A bit strange"' I thought. Scanned again. Nothing. Then about 60 seconds later a Peregrine Falcon came sailing past me about 20 metres away and 10 metres into the air. Wow. Just two pictures taken and only one decent image.

Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus

Next day I was off again heading eastwards and home but first stop was Two Peoples Bay and Cheynes Beach. Not much going on in the faunal world at TPB but the plants were going well.

Banded Lapwing, juvenile Vanellus tricolour

New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae

Purple-crowned Lorikeet Glossopsitta porphyrocephala

Further east along the coast just a short way is the skulking hotspot of the universe, Cheynes Beach. Home to the Noisy Scrub-bird (neither note nor pixel), the Western Bristlebird (seen fleetingly and well heard) and the Western Whipbird (seen at Stirling Ranges but not here). The best I could do was Sooty Oystercatcher.

Sooty Oystercatcher Haematapus fuliginosus