Shorebirds Report
May 2007
International Traveller visits Tin Can Bay
We know we have international bird visitors coming here to the bay. However, it is quite a different matter to actually find one carrying some travellers’ documents!
Sunday the 29th April dawned overcast and wet. I wondered if it was even worth-while trying to start a bird count but decided that I would meet the others at Norman Point - taking a minimum of equipment with me.
It was a few minutes before sunrise. As there was light rain falling we set up our scopes under the shelter of the roof over the picnic tables. The sand bank at the end of the point was exposed and a small flock of mixed birds was visible – Silver Gulls, Pied Oystercatchers, Eastern Curlews, and Bar-tailed Godwits. We had begun to count the numbers of the different species when Amelia Nielson said: ”There’s a bird out there with something on its leg!” 
That was enough to make us forget about counting the other birds and we all zoomed in on the Bar-tailed Godwit with the flag on its leg. We needed to see both the colour of the flag and any writing that might be on it. The light was still very bad but a combined effort and special help from Kelvin Nielson using the Swarovski scope eventually made out that the flag was black with white writing saying “E3”
I had left my camera at home and we needed this to make a confirmed sighting report. Half an hour later when I got back the flock had moved several hundred yards back around the foreshore. They had been disturbed by too many boats and people around Norman Point. After an exciting half hour of walking carefully closer to the birds and then shooting pictures from as many different angles and with as many different birds as possible we had our pictures of "E3".
This is the first time that any of us have seen a flagged bird. However, this one has exceeded all our expectations and has caused excitement all over Australia, to New Zealand, and Alaska.
"E3" is one of the birds that were satellite tagged in New Zealand on the 6th of February of this year. He left New Zealand on the 2nd of April and the last satellite transmission was from an island near Papua New Guinea. After that the transmissions stopped so somehow he got rid of the satellite transmitter and decided to come back here. The scientists in charge of the project have said that from the pictures he looks to be in good shape. We also observed and videoed him moving normally through the rest of the birds.
Only one other bird from those initially satellite tagged has been visually seen and photographed. This one had flown right up to Japan. Word has just come through that the first birds left the Yellow Sea area yesterday (3rd May) and are on the final leg of their journey to Alaska.