Tuggerah Wetlands

Red-kneed Dotterel

The Central Coast Group of Birding NSW  visited McPherson Road Swamp and Pioneer Dairy yesterday. Arriving at the swamp there were Dollar Birds perched on the wires and two Whipbirds wresting on the ground under dense shrubs. Golden-headed Cisticolas and Tawny Grassbirds called from the reeds, and Superb Fairywrens scolded from the bushes along the track.

Tawny Grassbird

A resident in one of the houses overlooking the water had a bird feeder on the fence, which had attracted numbers of Chestnut-breasted Manikin and Red-browed Finch.

Chestnut-breasted Manikin

Cattle Egret,  Eastern Great Egret and an Intermediate Egret fished along the shore. Amongst the more common ducks was a Hardhead, but sign of the Pink-eared Duck sighted there recently.

Hardhead

We flushed three Brown Quail, and watched two Latham's Snipe take off from nearby for safer locations on the far side of the water. Several Black-fronted Dotterel were content to stay put.

Latham's Snipe

Black-fronted Dotterel

At Pioneer Dairy there were good numbers of ibis, spoonbills, egrets, moorhens, swamp hens and ducks. Channel-billed Cuckoos and Figbirds flew to and from the giant fig trees. Raptors included Australian Kestrel and White-bellied Sea Eagle. A lone Australian Pipit his in the grass. Perhaps the 'bird of the day' was a substantial flock of Plumed Whistling Duck.

Stockton Channel

There are record numbers of Pacific Golden Plovers in the Hunter Estuary at the moment - over 400 counted. Sharing their high tide roost along the Stockton Channel were good numbers of Grey-tailed Tattlers. My quick stop did not locate some of the visitors seen here over the last few days, Greater Sand Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Grey Plover and Broad-billed Sandpiper.

Soldiers Point

#1 Pacific Golden Plover
 
#2 Curlew Sandpipers

#3 Ruddy Turnstones

#4 Grey-tailed Tattler
#5 Bar-tailed Godwit 
#6 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
#7 Red-necked Stint

Two Dog Hermit

Our morning workshop on the 7th was at Two Dog Hermit, where large mixed groups of waders gather on the off-shore rocks as the mud flats disappear under the incoming tide before moving to the beach.

   

A sea research team from the Netherlands identified over 280 different mud creatures from thin the Roebuck Bay tidal flats. The waders stick close to the edge of the tide as they feed, following the bivalves that are close to the surface at the water’s edge, but bunker down deeper into the mud as the tide recedes.

Eventually, as the tide brings lunch to a close, birds can catch a quick nap.
But instead of simply moving higher on the beach they were feeding on, they strangely commute up to 120kms a day between shady roost sites and the exposed mud flats. Beaches that held huge flocks the day before, may be empty the next day.

As the tide gets higher the hide tide mark is too close to the cliffs for the birds to relax. This day the birds were edgy, with flocks arriving and leaving alternately. The ten metre tide eventually lapped against the edge of the Pindan cliffs, and the birds had gone, perhaps to the plains or the wetlands of the sewerage ponds.

One Tree

Next day the high tide was a little later in the morning, so we went to One Tree to look for birds in the mangroves and get images of individual waders feeding on the mud flats.

First bird of the day was a broad-billed flycatcher, moving between three favoured perches to sing in the early morning light, followed by a mangrove grey fantail who proved more of a challenge to capture as he constantly flittered through the mangroves. White-breasted wood-swallows perched in the dead trees on the other side of Crab Creek, and yellow white-eyes were in abundance.

 

In George Swan’s guide to birding the area, he recommends birding the Big Crab Creek trail close to a neap tide as you need to cross Little Crab Creek and you will get stranded on a higher tide. He also gives specific instructions on where to cross Little Crab Creek to avoid the deepest mud. We crossed in plenty of time, and for the most part we stayed out of the mud. We were given specific instructions to be back at the creek crossing within 30 minutes, and divided up into ones and twos to creep up on individual birds feeding. It was a successful morning, with the valuable lesson learned that “40 minutes” isn’t really close enough to “30 minutes”. We had to go further upstream to cross Little Crab Creek and ended up knee deep in mud and thigh deep in water, ferrying cameras and tripods over our head. My shoes stuck in an underwater mud bank, and I left them there.

But using our newly learned birding and photography techniques, we did capture some great images of the waders.

Red-necked Stint   Great Knot

Ruddy Turnstone

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Black-tailed Godwit

Campsite Beach



The photography workshop had been timed so that we had the high tides that forced the birds off the mudflats where they fed, onto the beaches in massed groups, while the sun was low in the sky providing a perfect light for the birds. From then it was a matter of picking a beach and hoping it was the same one the the birds would pick, taking up a position tucked behind a rock and waiting for the birds to come.

I happened to choose well and was rewarded with some images of the huge number of waders that spend the summer on the shores of Roebuck bay.

Some of the birds are still showing their breeding colours. After a period of watching them closely they started to develop distinct personalities. The terek sandpipers are busy birds, even when others are closing their eyes they are still pottering about. The greenshanks are nervy, first to scatter as a white-breasted sea eagle, brahminy kite, or whistling kite flew overhead. 

Cable Beach

A walk along Cable Beach after breakfast provided some relief from the heat. There were half a dozen different species of wader in groups of twos and threes amongst the rocks, which provided a less than truly comfortable perch to sit and wait for them to come within camera distance.

The stints kept chasing each other, the red-capped plovers darting along the sand chasing something unseen, the pacific golden plovers washined their tit-bits in the rock pools before eating, and the sandplovers went about their foraging in an orderly manner.

Stockton Sand Spit

Two Pacific Golden Plovers have remained at the Stockton Sand-spit for the winter.  Usually the birds arrive in September and head off for the Alaskan Breeding Grounds in April. The bird in dark breeding colours had an injured leg, and the other appeared to be a juvenile.

In Australia Pacific Golden Plovers usually occur on beaches, mudflats and sandflats in sheltered areas including harbours, estuaries and lagoons. Important sites for the species within Australia are Broome, Moreton Bay, Shallow Inlet Marine Park, the Coroong, and the Hunter River Estuary.

They have one of the longest migration routes of any bird, along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway, and much of it is over open ocean with no opportunity for food or rest. It no longer seems surprising that these two stayed put.

BTW The collective noun for a group of plovers is a ‘deceit’.

Stockton Sand Spit

The Red-capped Plover is resident year-round at the Sandspit. This pair have either bred late, or bred a second time, with two young exploring their back yard while the parents watch nervously. A young White-bellied Sea Eagle flew over sending the babies into the Samphire.

Stockton Sand Spit

Red-capped Plover - immature

Having done a good deal of work since walking the dogs at dawn, I rewarded myself with a trip out to the Stockton Sand Spit, arriving around ninety minutes after high tide. There were good numbers of birds in the lagoon and salt marsh, and on the beach. There were two men collecting weed from the closest part of the lagoon, so  the birds were further out.  I crept out through the mangroves on the north side of the causeway, and got good views of the two pied oystercatcher runners, both quite grown up, one a little more independent of the parents than the other.

Three kinds of egret and a spoonbill were fishing in the shallows of the river. A large group of stilt hung around just off shore and a big group of godwit edged the beach. Curlews waited in the salt marsh.

I found a spot where I could sit on a log behind a grass tuft without putting up even the masked lapwing.  I didn’t have to wait long until a group of red-capped plover ambled up beside me to forage. The curlew were coming closer. And the godwit were near enough for me to identify at least one black-tailed among the bar-tailed. Terns and gulls were diving for fish.

Then they all took off. One of the weed gatherers was marching straight through the middle of the roost.

 

I waited half an hour but only the white-faced herons returned. However a peregrine falcon flew over, momentarily low enough for an ID shot.

Bird list.

• Peregrine Falcon
• Red-capped Plover
• Masked Lapwing
• White-faced Heron
• Little Egret
• Eastern Great Egret
• Intermediate Egret
• Royal Spoonbill
• Black-tailed Godwit
• Bar-tailed Godwit
• Far Eastern Curlew
• Whimbrel
• Pied Oystercatcher
• White-necked Stilt
• Australian White Ibis
• Silver Gull
• Crested Tern
• Gull-billed Tern
• Common Tern
• Little Black Cormorant
• Pied Cormorant
• Superb Fairywren
• Little Wattlebird
• Rock Dove

Soldier’s Point

Red-necked Stint

Pied Oystercatcher

Pacific Golden Plover

Curlew Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone

Over the summer Australia has an influx of around two million waders, which like the backpackers who arrive in similar numbers, are escaping the northern hemisphere winter. Like the backpackers again, they are distributed around the beaches of Australia. The full moon of New Year’s Day provided us with extreme tides, uncovering the intertidal flats at Soldier’s Beach on the central coast, and the sun was almost shining through the clouds so Maureen, Alwyn and I met up to capture some of the visitors. Of course as we arrived at the car-park above the beach it started to rain, so we grabbed coffees and huddled under the little available shelter while Maureen told us about all the great birds that were at this spot the day before.

The rain did stop, the sun even came out for a little while, before a late afternoon thunderstorm. We were able to run interference on holidaymakers determined to wander into the middle of the feeding birds, while gently edging close enough ourselves for some photos. As well as the birds above, the rock shelf held Silver Gulls, Great Crested Terns and Little Black Cormorants. A Terek Sandpiper flew on to the far edge of the platform, but didn’t come close enough for more than an ID shot.

(I’m trying Windows Live Writer for this blog post.)

Warren STW

Red-Kneed Dotterel

The settlement ponds in Warren and the lagoons known as Tiger Bay are conveniently arranged both sides of the highway through town. Apart from the olfactory assault that is a usual part of birding in an STW it was a rather pleasant spot with trees around the lagoon, raised paths and good views.

We stopped here on the way to and from Nyngan, turning off the Golden Highway at Dunedoo, and driving through Gilgandra rather than travelling through Dubbo.

Brown Treecreepers were plentiful, and vocal, entertaining us with their antics. Lots of ducks, and several raptors. We were planning to drive west until we found sunshine, and by Warren it had stopped raining and the sun was promising to break through. Two days later there was not a cloud in the sky.

Bird list:

Black Swan
Australian Wood Duck
Pink-eared Duck
Grey Teal
Pacific Black Duck
Australasian Grebe
Crested Pigeon
Little Black Cormorant
Straw-necked Ibis
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Whistling Kite
Nankeen Kestrel
Black Kite
Purple Swamphen
Black-winged Stilt
Black-fronted Dotterel
Red-kneed Dotterel
Masked Lapwing
Whiskered Tern
Galah
Red-winged Parrot
Red-rumped Parrot
Laughing Kookaburra
Brown Treecreeper
Spotted Bowerbird
Superb Fairy-wren
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Pied Currawong
Willie Wagtail
Australian Raven
Magpie-lark
Australian Reed-Warbler
Welcome Swallow
Mistletoebird