A Long Weekend in SW Victoria: Part 4. Shore birds

Driving home from Cape Bridgewater today, we decided to stop at some locations that we'd never visited before and we were rewarded with some great shore bird spotting and photography.

Shelly Beach (on Bridgewater Bay)
This beach is accessible from a short track off the main Bridgewater Road opposite the intersection with Bridgewater Lakes Road.

Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

The highlight here was a pair of Australian Pied Oystercatchers that turned on a great show:

First chasing each other around in circles with one bird latched on to the scapular feathers of the other

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

then taking off in flight,

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

one landing again just in front of me to pose for a portrait

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

The other wandering off purposefully down the beach in the other direction

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

Before flying back,

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

landing on rocks close-by and calling loudly.

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Shelly Beach, Bridgewater Bay

Mouth of the Fitzroy River
The Fitzroy River drains into Portland Bay a few km SE of Tyrendarra. Access is via Thomsons Road. There's a car park with boat ramp and picnic tables at the end of Thomsons Road but you can continue on past the car park driving along the firm sand bank of the river estuary stopping a hundred metres or so short of the river mouth and beach.

As we walked out onto the beach we spotted a solo Hooded Plover on the water's edge among some washed up kelp.

Hooded Plover, Fitzroy River Mouth

I managed to get a little closer by staying low and crawling slowly while the bird was feeding, stopping every time it looked up. This was as close as I was willing to get so not to scare the bird away.

Hooded Plover, Fitzroy River Mouth

While there I also spotted several Double-banded Plover

Double-banded Plover Fitzroy River Mouth

including this one just starting to develop breeding plumage.

Double-banded Plover Fitzroy River Mouth

Belfast Beach

A stretch of beach due south of Tower Hill, about half way between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, can be accessed from Gorman's Road. If you drive as far as you can there's a small car park with a short sand track to the beach. Immediately we got onto the beach we spotted Red-capped Plovers sheltering in tiny sand scrapes at the lee side of the sand ridge along the beach.

Red-capped Plover (male), Belfast Beach

I gave them a wide berth and headed over the ridge towards the sea. Closer to the water's edge, each small pile of kelp was surrounded by footprints where small wading birds had been feeding on the collection of invertebrates that make their home in the kelp.

I spotted several female Red-capped Plovers feeding along the water's edge so I crouched down and crept as close as I thought I could get without disturbing the birds.

Red-capped Plover (female), Belfast Beach

It's possible to get quite close to shore birds, while they are concentrating on feeding, providing you stay low. It helps having dunes in the background so your outline doesn't break the horizon. I tend to sit/kneel and wait for a while so I can see what the birds are doing and let them get used to me. I then crawl up on my knees leaving behind a turtle track...

Photographing Plovers, Belfast Beach
Photo courtesy of Joanne Smissen

...and then wait for the birds to come closer to me.

Red-capped Plover (female), Belfast Beach

It helps if the tide is coming in as most wading birds feed along the water's edge and the incoming tide will bring them closer to you.

Red-capped Plover (female), Belfast Beach

...but sometimes, they look straight down the barrel at you...

Red-capped Plover (female), Belfast Beach

As the waves recede, you can get some nice reflections.

Red-capped Plover (female), Belfast Beach

Red-capped Plover (male), Belfast Beach

A handful of Red-necked Stints were also feeding along the beach, having obviously opted to brave the Victorian winter in preference to the return flight to Siberia.

Red-necked Stint, Belfast Beach

A pair of Double-banded Plovers marched by

Double-banded Plover, Belfast Beach

and, as we were leaving, we found a solo juvenile Hooded Plover on the edge of the lagoon.

Hooded Plover (juvenile), Belfast Beach

The rest of the weekend:
Part 1. Cape Nelson
Part 2. Sunrise at Bridgewater Bay
Part 3. Lower Glenelg National Park

A Long Weekend in SW Victoria: Part 2. Sunrise at Bridgewater Bay

We stayed at The Sea View Lodge in Cape Bridgewater, right on Bridgewater Bay (thanks for the great hospitality Dennis!)

Sea View Lodge, Bridgewater Bay

This made it easy for an early morning walk on the beach to catch the sunrise...one of the advantages of winter is that 'early morning' is after 7:00!

Bridgewater Bay and Cape Bridgewater
Photo courtesy of Joanne Smissen

The colour of the early morning light combined with the reflections in the surface water on the rippled sand, made for some great views of Crested Terns and Silver Gulls but the very low light levels and mostly backlighting meant very slow shutter speeds would be required to adequately expose the birds. To avoid this, I decided to use fill flash to capture the birds and retain the colours in the wet sand. The flash also enables the colours of the birds to be captured vividly.

Crested Tern, Bridgewater Bay

Crested Tern (immature), Bridgewater Bay

Silver Gull, Bridgewater Bay

I had turned off the flash when these two started to perform but by then the light had improved a little allowing me to capture this interaction between adult and juvenile Silver Gulls.

Silver Gull, Bridgewater Bay

There were also some non-avian flyers hanging around.

The rest of the weekend:
Part 1. Cape Nelson
Part 3. Lower Glenelg National Park
Part 4. Shore Birds

Portland coast

After camping out at Bailey's Rocks in Dergholm State Park overnight following yesterday's Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo count, I decided to make the most of the trip to the far SW of the state and check out my favourite spots around the Portland coast in the (somewhat vain it turns out) hope that the wild weather over the last few days had brought some seabirds in close to shore.

First stop was Cape Bridgewater where there are good viewing spots of the ocean at the Blowhole and Petrified Forest. There were quite a few birds but they were a long way offshore making it difficult to identify (and fairly pointless photographing) anything but the largest birds, including several Black-browed Albatross

Black-browed Albatross, Cape Bridgewater, Portland

and this solo Giant Petrel. It was too far away to clearly see the colour of the tip of the bill which is the key distinguishing feature between the Southern and Northern species.

Unidentified Giant Petrel, Cape Bridgewater, Portland

I moved on to Bridgewater Bay where a large flock of Crested Terns was found on the beach in front of the cafe and Life Saving Club.

Crested Tern, Bridgewater Bay, Portland

I last visited this location on Anzac Day 2012 and found a solo White-fronted Tern among a large flock of Crested Terns in the same location. A quick check this time and, sure enough, a solo White-fronted Tern! I cannot believe that this is a coincidence but it is equally amazing if this bird has hung around in the same flock of non conspecifics for two years.

Crested Tern + White-fronted Tern, Bridgewater Bay, Portland

White-fronted Tern, Bridgewater Bay, Portland

Cape Nelson was equally poor for offshore birdwatching but it did provide some good sightings of other birds including this Brown Falcon that allowed me to get really close in the car before both of us were spooked by another car whose driver thought it amusing to toot the horn as he drove by. I can't fathom what makes people think that is funny/clever but it did give me a great take-off shot, again confirming that birds of prey take-off on the wing, rather than jump into the air first as many small passerines seem to do.

Brown Falcon, Cape Nelson, Portland

There were many Singing Honeyeaters in the coastal scrub near the lighthouse.

Singing Honeyeater, Cape Nelson, Portland

Last stop was Portland Harbour, where I usually manage to find something going on and today was no exception. Three Musk Ducks were cruising around the harbour: two males with partially grown bill-flaps

Musk Duck (male), Portland Harbour

and a female.

Musk Duck (female), Portland Harbour

I know that Musk Dusks are reported to occur "occasionally in the sea" but this is the first time I have seen it. More exciting, however was when, later in the afternoon, I managed to grab this shot of one of the ducks with a crab - not a great shot as it was very dark (just before sunset with a heavy overcast sky).

Musk Duck, Portland Harbour

The other attraction in the harbour during late afternoon is the returning fishing boats that attract a lot of avian attention when the day's catch is being processed on the pier. It gives a great opportunity for close-ups and flight shots of gulls

Pacific Gull (immature), Portland Harbour

Pacific Gull, Portland Harbour

Pacific Gull (immature), Portland Harbour

Silver Gull (immature), Portland Harbour

under the ever watchful eyes of some non-avians

Australian Fur Seal, Portland Harbour

 who manage to do well catching the occasional cast-offs from the fisherman.

Australian Fur Seal, Portland Harbour