Cooloola Birds

With an early morning tide I decided to kayak to the closest shorebird roost. The roost is accessible by land but then you can’t see the birds on the far shoreline without a spotting scope

It was not long after sunrise and the clouds thickened as I paddled around there. It was also very still with almost no wind. The bay had an almost opalescent colour with reflections from the clouds. It was very beautiful but very difficult to get good clear pictures of the shorebirds in these conditions.

Most of the larger shorebirds have left on the northern migration by now so I saw only small numbers of Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Eastern Curlew. The smaller birds were roosting down in among the salt marsh plants. With the lighting available this made for some interesting pictures but not clear pictures of the birds – except for the Red-capped Plover which were everywhere. These birds are resident here and seem even more visible with the other shorebirds gone. As usual there were a few Red-necked Stint roosting with them – only one of which had any breeding colour on it. There were also small numbers of Lesser Sand Plover. It will be interesting to see if any of these spend the winter here. I saw only one with breeding colours.