Immediately I hit the beach a large flock of Red-necked Stint was found feeding among the seaweed (a mixture of kelp and seagrass).
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| Red-necked Stint, 13th Beach |
It was just after high tide when I arrived. This makes it easy to see the birds because they are higher up the shore but they are also much more easily disturbed by people walking along the beach.
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| Red-necked Stint, 13th Beach |
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| Red-necked Stint, 13th Beach |
Some were starting to get their breeding plumage--darker and more brightly coloured wing feathers and the characteristic red neck
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| Red-necked Stint |
Several Ruddy Turnstone were skulking among the stints.
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| Ruddy Turnstone + Red-necked Stint, 13th Beach |
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| Ruddy Turnstone, 13th Beach |
I could sit and watch Stints and Turnstones all day but I was particularly interested in finding the Pacific Golden Plover found last time so I extracted myself as carefully as possible from my observation point close to the seaweed and walked westward up the beach to the rocks where the PGPs are usually found.
As I approached the rocks, the flock of PGPs flushed but soon settled closeby on the outer rocks.
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| Pacific Golden Plover, 13th Beach |
It's a bit of a challenge crawling over rocks to get closer but I was reasonably successful,
Pacific Golden Plover, 13th Beach
getting close enough to capture several birds with different stages of breeding plumage development.
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| Pacific Golden Plover, 13th Beach |
It's surprising (maybe!) that there is so much variation in the amount of breeding plumage within each species, so it would be interesting to know if it affected their breeding success!
ReplyDeleteYes, this would be an interesting global study but imagine the logistics of trying to track individual birds from Australia to Siberia/Alaska. Now if I could only get funding... :-)
DeleteWonderful series of photographs of these shorebirds. You must have been a happy birder after this excursion.
ReplyDeleteHi David,
DeleteThanks four you comments...and yes, it was a wonderful few hours on the beach :-)
Cheers, Ian
Second comment: I just noticed your tribute to Eric Hosking. What an amazing bird photographer he was and what a varied and interesting life he led. I have most of what he published.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the dedication, time and effort he and other wildlife photography pioneers spent considering the equipment they were using in comparison with today's digital technology.
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