Queensland Visits: Ethan 02

Here are some images of shorebirds and birds that frequent the shore around Gladstone (and most of the rest of Australia for that matter).

Bar-Tailed Godwit colouring up

Bar-Tailed Godwit colouring up

Eastern Curlew

Eastern Curlews

Shorebirds en masse

Great Knot

mostly Lesser Sandplovers

Grey-tailed Tattler

Lesser Sandplover

Red-necked Stint

Terek Sandpiper

White-bellied Sea-eagle

Broome 2017 _ Wave The Waders Goodbye _ Day 07

Day 07

My flight back to Melbourne via Perth left at 6pm so I had the day around the BBO ...

... to lounge in the newly constructed Kitchen, walk a track or two and then do some serious wader watching on an incoming tide. My only bird image of the morning walk was a White-throated Gerygone.

White-throated Gerygone Gerygone olivacea

The plan for the wader watching was simple. Take a low chair, sit a hundred metres out from shore, in the mud, and wait for the tide to “drive” the waders towards me. Nigel Jackett, BBO Warden, has some fabulous images of birds obtained with a similar but way more serious technique of lying on a boogie board in the mud. Being at eye-level with the birds is best but I didn’t have a wetsuit so decided a low chair was the nearest I wanted to manage. Here are the results in Christian Name alphabetical order.

Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica

This Barwit has GGT and GrK friends with him.

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris

Grey-tailed Tattler Tringa brevipes

Lesser Crested Tern Sterna Thalasseus bengalensis

Little Tern Sternula albifrons 

Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis

 

Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres

Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus

Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida Non-breeding adult.

So now that you have seen heaps of waders, here are two wide-angle shots. See if you can identify the birds. My answers in the next post.

Ashmore Reef 05 -- Middle Island and Horseshoe Cay

Middle Island and Horseshoe Cay

These were our destinations on third day at Ashmore Reef. This is the island where the terns usually live and breed. With 24,000 Sooty Terns and plenty of Bridled Terns on West Island, we wondered if there would be any left there!

The usual photogenic dawn.

As The Pig came into shore at Middle Island, Rohan Clarke yelled out, "Quick. Give me the binoculars". In the huge number of Sooty and Bridled Terns, Boobies and Lesser Frigatebirds spiralling in the updraft above the island, a "white tropicbird" was re-identified as a leucistic frigatebird, This was a mega find and many, many photos were taken. It was a star bird of the trip. We named him/her "Snowflake".

"Snowflake" Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel

Great Frigatebird, female Frigate minor

Lesser Frigatebird, male Fregata ariel

After the excitement of Snowflake and nesting frigate birds and boobies, we were off just a few hundred metres to Horseshoe Cay and it's plethora of shorebirds. Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers, Godwits, Turnstones, Stints, Sanderling, Tattlers, Terns, Greenshanks and one Terek Sandpiper.

 

One Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus amongst a scattering
of Sanderling Calidris alba with
a Grey-tailed Tattler Tringa breviceps,
a Lesser Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus and
the asiatic race of the Gull-billed Tern Gelochelidon nilotica affinis

One interesting resident was this crab. Can you tell me what it is? I don't know! Reminds me of SquareBob Spongepants.

Going South now -- 02 -- Karumba

One advantage of travelling late in the season is the lack of grey nomads everywhere. On the roads, in the caravan parks. Hence you have the place to yourself and, if you time your trip for pre-01 November, everything is still open. Such was life in the Karumba Caravan Park where I stayed two nights and took advantage of the early morning birding boat trip. I discovered Karumba [and the Gulf of Carpentaria for that matter] only has one tide a day, not two! Something to do with not being in the direct line of the sweep of the tides around the main coast of Australia. I don't understand. If anyone has an answer please let me know.

However they do have great birds. This Jabiru had been found six years ago by the tour folk as a neglected orphan of twins so they started giving him some extra fish on regular basis. Now he flies in to say hello most tours. He is totally independent but does accept any fish they throw him!

Black-necked Stork
Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus

Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus

Little Bronze-cuckoo Chalcites minutillus

Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus

White-Bellied Sea-eagle
Haliaeetus leucogaster
We couldn't have got closer if we tried.
About 10 metres away.

The White-breasted Whistler is a difficult bird to see. Well, the male is. Here is the female.

White-breasted Whistler, female
 Pachycephala lanioides

Here is the usual view of the male, if you get to see him at all. According to the tour folk, in 14 years they had never had a clear view of the male.

So we waited a few seconds while he was still about and, lo and behold, he hopped in front of the mangrove leaf and stayed still for 30 seconds. Plenty of time! Quite a speccy bird. I was well pleased with the view [and the photo too].

White-Breasted Whistler, male

Last, but not least is the Yellow White-eye.

Yellow White-eye Zosterops luteus