Shorebirds Report
June 2006
Empty beaches! Empty roosting places! It’s like walking into a house where the residents have just walked out and disappeared. Although it happens every winter it still seems strange to see no birds on formerly packed roosts. The bush birds sing just as loudly from the surrounding trees and shrubs as if they would like to be noticed in their ones and twos now that the great numbers of waders are not there to watch.
There are a few migratory waders who winter here – possibly the very young or the very old. There are also a number of wader species that live all the time in Australia and some of these appear in even greater numbers during the winter. Our Cooloola winter climate and lifestyle is enjoyable for both human and bird visitors.
Recently I was kayaking around the bay and came across a whole flock of little Red-capped Plovers (Charadrius ruficapillus). There were at least 50 birds all together on a sand bank in amongst sheltering mangroves. These little wader birds are resident in Australia. During the summer they are also commonly seen here – but only in ones and twos. Sometimes you will see movement way out on the sand flats of the bay at low tide and when you look through binoculars you see one of these little birds busily hunting for small worms, shell fish, or insects. Red-capped plovers nest here in the summer. The nest is usually just a small hollow in the sand built next to tidal debris or among small plants. Last summer I saw a pair of Red-capped Plovers chasing off a big Eastern Curlew when it got too close to their two very tiny babies which were hiding in a clump of grass.
Red-capped Plover (sometimes known as a Red-capped dotterel) This bird is tiny – only 150mm in length. The male has a red coloured cap and nape – the female is paler coloured. Both birds have an incomplete breastband of similar colour. They are white on the forehead and down the front. The back is grey-brown. The beak is short and dark.