As you can see by these photos, there were a lot of Waders showing breeding colour. What surprises me is the number of Curlew Sandpiper with varying stages of colour on them. At the time we thought maybe only a couple had colour, but after going through all the photos taken on the day there were a lot more than we thought. The smallest waders are the Curlew Sandpiper in amongst the Great Knot, with Bar-tailed Godwit at the back. The second photo is a cropped version of the first.
Curlew Sandpiper
Great Knot
Bar-tailed Godwit
The Red-necked Stint and other small waders like to use the tracks left by 4WD vehicles going over to Fraser Island as a wind break.
Red-necked Stint
As it was very early in the morning we were the only one's around, and the vehicle traffic had not started yet, so we were able to get quite close to the birds without disturbing them.
4WD Track
Knee Shuffle Track
How to get nearer to the birds without disturbing them is to get closer to the ground, the lower you are the better. One way is to hop onto your knees and shuffle along very slowly.
Sit and Shuffle Track
Or if in my case if you are a bit taller and may frighten the birds, to sit and shuffle along. After a while we were able to stand up and the birds did not seem to mind our presence as they did not fly away.
14 comments:
I like the birds - especially the very red Curlew Sandpiper. However, the 'shuffle' tracks are definitely the most interesting!
Thanks Mick I tried to word it in a nice way.
Hi - great pictures - keep an eye out for Bar Tails (and others) with orange leg flags. We band them down here around Melbourne and they turn up all over the palce!
You may find this post in my other blog about banding Bar Tails of interest: http://payingreadyattention.blogspot.com/2011/02/long-distance-travel.html
Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne
Thanks Stewart will let you know if we see any up this way.
that´s a great post. Fun to capture those tracks. I think that was the best part here. :) Thanks for the smile.
Great series!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
I always find waders a nightmare to ID; but such lovely birds.
Great captures Neil.
Lovely images and a really good read. Great post.
Thanks for the laugh! I never think about MY tracks. There's lots of fun in Cooloola obviously! Fantastic post!
Well, at least the 4WD tracks have a use!
A great set of images. Well done!
Have a nice day.
I love seeing these shorebirds in different stages of plumage Neil. Great shots! Your tip on getting close to shorebirds is excellent also. I think sand height shots of shorebirds, or any bird walking along the ground, are always the best. I really enjoyed your "track" photos too ;-)
Fantastic group of shorebirds!
Thanks Everyone for your comments.
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