228) Shorebird schooling

Eastern Curlews

One of Nancy's fellow PhD inmates requested volunteers to help with a shorebird count up in the Great Sandy Straits of Moreton Bay, where they spend the North American winter (our summer).  The shorebirds are now preparing to fly back north to their summer breeding grounds. We are shorebird novices.  Shorebirds are usually not that accessible to look at, and since most of them aren't in breeding plumage when they're in this hemisphere, they all look alike to many people--various sized birds in shades of grey and brown. So although we doubted we would be much help in the actual count, we went along to keep Rob company and to learn and contribute what we could.

Many birds - something like seven species in this photo! ...we got the 3 Pied Cormorants, 1 Pied Oystercatcher, 1 Eastern Curlew, many Bar-tailed Godwits, and what else?

Rob rented a dingy to approach the roosts from water, both because they are hard to get to, and from the water, we hoped to cause less disturbance to the birds.  In this case, the high tide concentrated the birds on this sandbar (this is only a small section of the sandbar) , where it would be easier for us to count them before they then dispersed to feed in the mudflats as the tide dropped. The first problem is simply estimating a number of birds, before you even try to distinguish species. It takes practice as there are often 600-2500 birds (or more) so you have to develop the skill of estimating without counting. In case they fly before you're done counting, they idea is to start with rough numbers and then refine it if you have more time.

Red-necked stints, Gull-billed terns, Greater and Lesser Plovers

Pied Oystercatcher and Bar-tailed Godwit

 It was great to see small groups of Pied Oystercatchers. Since ANYbody could identify these guys, we were happy to provide counts of them!

Bar-tailed Godwits (breeding and non-breeding plumage,
Red Knots, Great Knots

The next problem is identifying the birds that look - well really similar, to novices like us. I mean REALLY similar. It was a good lesson and surely it would get easier with more practice (like a few years spend peering through scopes at thousands of birds....)



Although we were pleased to see more Red Knots than we expected, unfortunately the weekend count was disturbing for curlews.  Ten years ago surveyors estimated 18,000 Eastern Curlews here; over the weekend we saw less than 2000. There are not that many other places they could be...  Key spots on the East Australasian Flyway have been lost to development and dams on the rivers are preventing sediments from moving downstream and replenishing deltas... If the mudflats are gone, birds can't refuel by feeding in the along the way, and they may not survive the several thousand kilometer journey from Australia to Siberia and Alaska.  

Red-backed Fairywren

Royal Spoonbill in breeding plumage

Definitely not a shorebird, there were also some of our other bush faves - It is impossible to not take a photo of these guys when they drop in and pose!


















Closer to 'home,' it's portrait time at Sandy Camp wetland!