Look sharp at Sharpies but beware wild goose chase

Look sharp! Look, Sharpies! Sharp-tailed Sandpipers that is. But wait, look sharpish! What am I looking for? Uncommon Pectoral Sandpiper. Sharp cutoff in breast streaking. Touch of yellow at base of bill. Look hard. Nothing. And thus fail to notice uncommon Curlew Sandpiper right under my nose. Broad white rump, black downcurved bill. There for all to see. Or all those not on narrow focus wild goose chase. See how you go.

Elsewhere lately, finally caught up with a Latham's Snipe a month or two after the first migratory arrivals from the Northern Hemisphere.

It was mixing with a few Sharpies, which are always more obliging when it comes to hanging about for bird photographers. If only Pectorals were as obliging . . .

Getting old and taking things lying down

The old back won't take lying down efforts to capture small shorebirds at eye level but is willing to allow me lying back with big lens propped on elbow or raised knee. The birds learn to ignore the chatty creature in the long grass. So, mud, messy gumboots and floundering mishaps at Pandanus viewing area, Town Common, Townsville. And the birds . . .

Red-kneed Dotterels (top, adult; above, post-juvenile and juvenile)

Pied Stilt with long legs forward for gentle landing.

Two for one offering from Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

Plenty of preening keeps Glossy Ibis looking its colourful best.

And, courtesy of Sue Rutherford, I'm caught lumbering out of swampy long grass on another day and in another part of the Common. The gear changes, the ugly mug remains the same.

Takes a Sheila to show Aussie birders Satin rarity

Oooh, look! What's that shiny black and white bird? It's so smooth and black on back and head. Could it be a rarely seen Satin Flycatcher in the Common today. Yes, it could. And it took a visitor from Wiltshire way, Sheila Ashley, to see it first. Proving that one good turn deserves another, she and husband Paul were being shown around by Len and Chris Ezzy. I tagged along. Lucky all of us.

Not so much luck involved in seeing a few other species commonly seen lately. Rose-crowned Fruitdove seems content to stay forever close to favourite feed trees near Freshwater hide.

Which is close to where immature Australian Raven was today tucking into fish, without parents or sibling trying to cadge a bite.

Not so many Sharp-tailed Sandpipers at Pandanus viewing area today, but caught some showing off in recent times.

Male Barking Owl certainly not one to show off, but every now and then he glowers for the camera.

More glow than glower from Nankeen Night Heron, missing today from Melaleuca hideout but almost whitewashed me nearby just the other day.

Much noisier and more easily spotted, adult Dollarbird one of four calling and shifting position often this morning near Payet Tower.

But no sign today of immature Spectacled Monarch, above with, I think, Crane Fly.

Crimson Finches seldom fail to turn up, nor did they today.

And one of highlights for Sheila and Paul, apart from the Satin of course, male Great Bowerbird busy, busy, busy about his bower. Happy too, crest-risen, as opposed to crestfallen.

What a pity we're too far northeast for Satin Bowerbird and Satin Flycatcher in one day. That'd just be greedy though, eh?

Mud, mud, glorious mud . . .

Sloshing around muddy edges of fast-receding shallows at Melaleuca viewing area in the Townsville Common Conservation Park lately brought dodgy footing and images, including low overflight by young Brolga - bill much muddied - today.

Down on the 'ground' (mostly mud bounded by thick para grass), solitary Greater Sand Plover highlighted yesterday and today.

More numerous, thinly scattered Sharp-tailed Sandpipers came and went without troubling the plover.

As also did Red-necked Stints, in lower numbers and all flightier than others marching and munching across the mud.

And poised high and dry above it all this morning, Golden-headed Cisticola sings from dead sedge stalk.

Stint works hard for balanced feed

Getting 'balanced' diet hard for Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis) holding injured leg close to body ... 

... good thing wings still work.

Nearby, Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops) takes one-leg rest.

And Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) tucks in. 

Elsewhere, Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae), unlike Stint, enjoys stretch of beach.

Portraits in passing along the Orient

Don't take many portraits, but here's a handsome big boy at Orient Station the other day. He insisted on showing only his left horn. 'We've all got out better side,' he said ruminatively.

Close by, Brolga may have been chasing flying prey, but it's more likely only a fluke passing during a spot of splash and dash.

Here's the reason for crawling about in the friendly bull's domain, Zitting Cisticola, temptingly atop paperbark seedling, but never stopping long enough for better closeups.

Just down the road, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper stood around for a wee while though wouldn't stand for my effort to get an image from water level.

Trust me, it's not always this easy

What's great about this Great Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii) is the trust allowed.

Walked in close and enjoyed a long chat, at Dungeness.

Also trusting, White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) sits tight, near Orient 
Station.

Even more trusting than usual, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), near Ingham.

Trust me, Comb-crested Jacana (Irediparra gallinacea) usually more wary; on Tyto lagoon.

Trusting for even better in 2013, Happy New Year!

La Nina falls keep species down

September didn't see any Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (Calidris acuminata) in Tyto. (Above bird seen this week, with Common Greenshank and Black-tailed Godwit, on tidal lagoon beside my favourite country road).


It seems with La Nina's hold deepening, more rain falling and Tyto Wetlands water levels at capacity there'll be no muddy shallows to attract migratory waders before the Wet proper sets in. Species count for September, 113, 10 down on 2009.

So, off west to see nesting Wompoo Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus), peering distantly through the rainforest gloom, near the Wallaman Falls road. Impossible to gain clear view of bird. Will try again in a week or so. 
Click pix to enlarge  

One in eye for Shrike-Thrush and me

Little Shrike-Thrush (Colluricincla megarhyncha) on ground at Broadwater Forest Park, west of Ingham, today appears to be winking. Not so. After berating the bird for constantly closing eye as it did a spot of sheltered sunning I realised mistake: injury or ailment had led to permanent closure. Routine hazard for birds that spend much of their day poking heads into forest tangles, I suppose.

Sharp-eyed pair of Plumed Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna eytoni) turn away from the Tyto lookout over the weekend. The large flocks have gone (probably up to the tableland) but a few birds are still hanging about with the more numerous Wandering Whistlers.

Also sticking around in limited numbers are Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (Calidris acuminata). This pair caught in middle of minor spat at a small wetlands just east of Ingham.

Finally, bad news at the Great Bowerbird bower. Flattened and pillaged. Possibly the work of another bird. More likely the doing of a Naked Ape. Restores my lack of faith in human nature!

Golden Plover gilds wader watch

Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva) only wader of rare note in or near Tyto through year to date. Not so hard to find up and down the coast, but this solo bird popped into view on Wednesday just beyond the wetlands' westernmost point, on regreening burnt grass alongside young sugar cane. (I was looking for quail.) Plover unfortunately took lead from two Masked Lapwings it was with and would not settle close enough for better pictures.

Then, 100mm of rain overnight and following day. No sign of bird since.

But two more common wader species have dropped in on newly flooded areas. Bit like buses. None for a while and then three turn up! (New Scientist explained why buses do this. Nothing to do with birds in threes.) Anyway, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) trio above could pass as triplets.

Wood Sandpipers (Tringa glareola) not so strikingly alike. Striking enough merely to have three of the often solitary birds so close together. One bird has been the regular daily ration for most of the month. Below, a closeup look at a Wood, taken at a nearby treatment pond.