Happy Bird Day To Me

Yesterday a post appeared on the Birds WA e-mail list. It was about various waders seen at Herdsman Lake.

Part of it read as follows -

Red-capped Plover: 1

Black-fronted Dotterel: 3

Black-winged Stilt: 35

Wood Sandpiper: 1

Red Knot: 1

Pectoral Sandpiper: 1 (my first at the lake)

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper: 400

Curlew Sandpiper: 1 (my first at the lake)

FOUR HUNDRED Sharpies!? Woah. I figured I'd probably go down to Herdy the next day (today) and check it out. I e-mailed the poster back to ask exactly where these birds were.

I ended up birding with Marie, a friend of mine who is even more of a bird nerd than me. Unfortunately I hadn't recieved a reply about the location of the waders so we figured we'd just check out various spots around the lake. I was a bit stumped because I often have lunch at Maurice Hamer Park, on the southern side of the lake, and the water level is still REALLY high. No exposed mud = no waders. We started at my regular lunch spot anyway, just in case. Marie mentioned how she was worried about tiger snakes but had never seen one and at that moment I looked to my left and almost had a heart attack. No more than 2 metres away was a tiger snake on the grass. I was happy to see it and Marie was delighted to finally see one, and it slid off into the long grass, not at all threatening. It was just a bit of a surprise to find that I got so close to one of Australia's most venemous snakes without noticing it!

We then popped around to Moondine Drive and checked out an area there where I'd seen lots of dotterels at one time. Nope, still way too much water. So we went to the carpark on the corner of Jon Sanders Drive and Herdsman Parade and walked around to the first bird hide. All along we were seeing plenty of birds and occasionally getting sprinkled on by a light rain, but still, the water was way too deep for waders. We were starting to scoff. This guy was mad. FOUR HUNDRED Sharp-tailed Sandpipers? A RED KNOT? Schyeah right, whatever. The only migratory waders I'd ever seen on Herdy were the odd Greenshank and a group of six Wood Sandpipers one time.

So we decided to park near the pony club and wander around the north-west side to the AMP statue and see if the drains were potential wader spots. I figured we might walk as far as the old dredger pond if we weren't successful, maybe they were in that field that floods sometimes and occasionally harbours a vagrant Cattle Egret.

We didn't have to walk that far. We'd just got to the pond with the statue when on our left, in the main part of the lake an expanse of slashed typha and mud opened up ahead of us. I could see Egrets and Spoonbills and Ibis and Black-winged Stilts on it, and looking through my bins I saw the telltale movement of small brown waders. THIS had potential.

Lucky we'd both decided to bring our scopes on this leg of the trip, because we spent the next half hour or so looking through them upon - hundreds of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. "Ooh, I can see a larger bird, it's much greyer. Is that the Knot?" I took a look. It was certainly Knotty, and we both agreed that it wasn't a Great Knot, so it must have been a Red Knot!

We continued to grill the flocks of Sharpies, but I couldn't remember exactly what else the guy had reported, so I rang Matt and asked him to check the e-mail. Now we knew what we were looking for. I found the Curlew Sandpiper minutes later. Marie thinks she might have seen the Pectoral Sandpiper, but they are a pain to ID in the field, and I didn't see it, so we'll never know for sure. We didn't find the other species reported.

By that time the sky was rumbling ominously (we didn't get any storms though, bummer) and we had to head home anyway so I could get lamb shanks on to cook.

All in all, a great birdy day.

Happy Bird Day To Me

Yesterday a post appeared on the Birds WA e-mail list. It was about various waders seen at Herdsman Lake.

Part of it read as follows -

Red-capped Plover: 1

Black-fronted Dotterel: 3

Black-winged Stilt: 35

Wood Sandpiper: 1

Red Knot: 1

Pectoral Sandpiper: 1 (my first at the lake)

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper: 400

Curlew Sandpiper: 1 (my first at the lake)

FOUR HUNDRED Sharpies!? Woah. I figured I'd probably go down to Herdy the next day (today) and check it out. I e-mailed the poster back to ask exactly where these birds were.

I ended up birding with Marie, a friend of mine who is even more of a bird nerd than me. Unfortunately I hadn't recieved a reply about the location of the waders so we figured we'd just check out various spots around the lake. I was a bit stumped because I often have lunch at Maurice Hamer Park, on the southern side of the lake, and the water level is still REALLY high. No exposed mud = no waders. We started at my regular lunch spot anyway, just in case. Marie mentioned how she was worried about tiger snakes but had never seen one and at that moment I looked to my left and almost had a heart attack. No more than 2 metres away was a tiger snake on the grass. I was happy to see it and Marie was delighted to finally see one, and it slid off into the long grass, not at all threatening. It was just a bit of a surprise to find that I got so close to one of Australia's most venemous snakes without noticing it!

We then popped around to Moondine Drive and checked out an area there where I'd seen lots of dotterels at one time. Nope, still way too much water. So we went to the carpark on the corner of Jon Sanders Drive and Herdsman Parade and walked around to the first bird hide. All along we were seeing plenty of birds and occasionally getting sprinkled on by a light rain, but still, the water was way too deep for waders. We were starting to scoff. This guy was mad. FOUR HUNDRED Sharp-tailed Sandpipers? A RED KNOT? Schyeah right, whatever. The only migratory waders I'd ever seen on Herdy were the odd Greenshank and a group of six Wood Sandpipers one time.

So we decided to park near the pony club and wander around the north-west side to the AMP statue and see if the drains were potential wader spots. I figured we might walk as far as the old dredger pond if we weren't successful, maybe they were in that field that floods sometimes and occasionally harbours a vagrant Cattle Egret.

We didn't have to walk that far. We'd just got to the pond with the statue when on our left, in the main part of the lake an expanse of slashed typha and mud opened up ahead of us. I could see Egrets and Spoonbills and Ibis and Black-winged Stilts on it, and looking through my bins I saw the telltale movement of small brown waders. THIS had potential.

Lucky we'd both decided to bring our scopes on this leg of the trip, because we spent the next half hour or so looking through them upon - hundreds of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. "Ooh, I can see a larger bird, it's much greyer. Is that the Knot?" I took a look. It was certainly Knotty, and we both agreed that it wasn't a Great Knot, so it must have been a Red Knot!

We continued to grill the flocks of Sharpies, but I couldn't remember exactly what else the guy had reported, so I rang Matt and asked him to check the e-mail. Now we knew what we were looking for. I found the Curlew Sandpiper minutes later. Marie thinks she might have seen the Pectoral Sandpiper, but they are a pain to ID in the field, and I didn't see it, so we'll never know for sure. We didn't find the other species reported.

By that time the sky was rumbling ominously (we didn't get any storms though, bummer) and we had to head home anyway so I could get lamb shanks on to cook.

All in all, a great birdy day.