Shorebirds from the Point and other stuff

A comment on the Mallacoota Birds Facebook page mention some White-fronted Terns being seen in the mouth of the Snowy River.  This species migrates from New Zealand to Australia over Winter.   It isn't a complete movement as shown in the follow snips from eBird.


I thought that the species might have come to Mallacoota also, and that the best chance of seeing it/them was from Captain Stephenson's Point, as the sand bars on with terns loaf are closer to the point than the beach at Bastion Point.  To my astonishment almost the first bird was a much smaller tern.  I hoped it was a White-fronted Tern: unfortunately looking at my references raised doubts and when another observer saw Little Terns at the same spot and a Facebook comment said "Little"  that was it  Here it is in the background.
And then on its own
Something - I suspect a Whistling Kite, but didn't see more than a large raptorish shape - flew over and caused all the terns to take to the air.
They settled down again with one of the 21 Australian Pied Oystercatchers.
There were 10 Bar-tailed Godwits feeding in the shallows.  They should be in Siberia now but have obviously decided not to bother.  This one is in pretty close to full breeding plumage
Later in the day as well around the Betka area Frances noticed a 'different' lump on the top of this rock. 
 It was a Sooty Oystercatcher in an unusual location (I'd expect it to have a nose bleed that far off the ground!)
 We also noticed a fair array of fungus.  Attempts at naming to follow.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Insects from pine trees

A tour of the West (part 1)

Maslins beach rules