Black-fronted Dotterels return

The Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops) is one of several species of birds called, at various times Plovers or Dotterels.  At present they seem to be Dotterels. They are small wading birds, not uncommon in the right season around small wetlands in the inland of the country.

I had spotted them occasionally during the first years of our residence in Carwoola - mainly in the Hoskinstown Plain, but also breeding in the higher land near our house - but they seemed to have left in January 2010 when watery habitat became available elsewhere.  Here is a shot of an adult and a young chick from November 2008.

This morning (2 May 2011) I was birding near a farm dam in the Plain and became aware of the calls of the birds and eventually saw two of them.  Here is a snap of one of them.

By chance I spent some time birding the Fyshwick Sewage ponds on 3 May and found there to be some mud evident.  This is always a promising sign and I heard some calls very like Black-fronted Dotterels coming from that area.  For such pretty birds they are bloody hard to spot but eventually I spotted and photographed them.  As it was quite a bit closer I got a better - in the sense of detail of plumage - shot.

The centre of the dam - from 2 May - was occupied by a young Australasian Grebe.

There was no trace of a nest on this small (perhaps 15m diameter) dam so it must have flown in from its place of birth and be setting up 'home' here.  Comparing its plumage with those that bred on our own dam I would take a bold punt that it is part of a second, or perhaps third, brood.