Beach-stone Curlew – rare visitor Lakes Entrance

To the date of this post, from when one bird was first recorded at Port Albert in 2013 (1), Birdata has recorded a total of 122 Beach Stone-Curlew sightings on the Victorian and South Australian coast for this strictly coastal shorebird species, at only 12 locations and always for just one bird for each record.

Since 2013 there has been a relatively large number of Birdata BSC sighting records including a single bird appearing to take up residence in the Snowy River Estuary at Marlo in East Gippsland for a number of years between 2014 and 2018. During the same period there were a number of sightings in the west of the State near Apollo Bay and Cape Otway and even five records in South East South Australia near Port Macdonnell. 

At the time some of us pondered if the westerly sightings were either due to the Marlo bird ranging further west or a second bird present in Victoria during the same time period. 

Since 2018 there has been one bird recorded in SA in 2019, one near Cape Otway in 2021 with a gap until late 2024 when a bird was recorded at Mallacoota on the 1st of October, then one bird at Lakes Entrance on the 8th of November, which was most likely the Mallacoota bird ranging further west. There have been no more sightings of BSC recorded in Victoria to mid-July 2025.

The surprise Lakes Entrance visit prompted me to make a detailed assessment of the Birdata records to determine if during the 2014 – 2018 period we had just one or perhaps two BSC’s in Victoria. The assessment revealed overlapping dates in February and March 2014 that confirmed there were in fact two birds in Victoria at that time.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The following photos are of the Lakes Entrance bird which made a brief visit in November 2024.

Of course without being able to identify individual birds, or records more than one bird in different locations simultaneously, we cannot be sure exactly how many individual BSC's have visited Victoria since 2013. It is possible however and even likely that the bulk of the 122 records are for just two individual birds during the 2013 to 2018 period, and the four records since 2018 possibly include one or two additional birds. If so this makes visits to Victoria by BSC's very rare and therefore applying the term vagrants (2) to BSC's sighted in Victoria is justified.  

More information on BSC’s - this link will take you to a 2021 Avithera post featuring three BSC’s in the Marshall’s Creek Reserve at Brunswick heads in northern NSW.

http://avithera.blogspot.com/2021/07/beach-stone-curlew.html

NOTES

(1) There may well have been unrecorded sightings or recorded sightings in other databases prior to 2013 – only Birdata, which includes eBird data imports up to 2022, has been searched for this post.

(2) Sean Dooley in his excellent book Anoraks to Zitting Cisticola defines a vagrant bird as “a bird that turns up in a region where it shouldn’t normally be”.

Tawny Frogmouth family

Tawny Frogmouths are our most often encountered and reported terrestrial nocturnal bird species (1). The reason they are so often found is they often roost during the day in plain sight, relying on their brilliant feather colouring to blend in but also on their “dead branch” imitation while perching very still with eyes closed (2). 

As Frogmouths present no threat to other bird species, they are left to roost in peace, whereas predatory owl species must hide away to avoid being mercilessly harassed by birds they may prey on, making them much harder to find by day when most of us are out birding.

Recently at the Broken Hill Desert Park we were asked by a lady if we would like to see something very special. Of course we said we would and were then shown three Tawny Frogmouths roosting together in the open on a branch about head height beside picnic facilities. It was great to see her excitement and clear delight in seeing these beautiful birds, eyes shut and motionless, on their perch bathing in full morning sunlight after a very cold night.

As I took a few photos I thought this is a family group – mum, dad and a young one.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

However on checking the photos on the laptop later and verifying their sex after consulting field guides, it was clear the trio were all females as shown by the brown colour of some feathers. The males are all grey with no brown colouring. So this family group comprised mum, seen as the larger bird at the rear, and two advanced female young, which in the photos look smaller and are not perched in the head up dead branch stance so common in adult birds.

The following photos show there is not much action to capture when photographing roosting Frogmouths, their movements are slow and minimal.

Photo cropped for a close view of one of the young birds showing the extravagant rictal bristles and feather detail which provides camouflage by replicating dead wood.

NOTES

(1) It is claimed the Tawny Frogmouth is our most frequently encountered nocturnal bird. A check of Birdata sighting records on 16/07/2025 confirms this: Tawny Frogmouth (62,141), Southern Boobook (46,633), Owlet Nightjar (25,501), Powerful Owl (18,987), Eastern Barn Owl (9,635), Barking Owl (7,402). All the other nocturnal terrestrial species have much lower reporting rates.

(2) The following quote from Michael Morcombe’s excellent Guide to the Birds of Australia is a good description of Frogmouths: “Probably the best known Australian nocturnal bird; occasionally seen in camouflage pose on an exposed limb, stiffly posed to mimic a broken branch. The streaked and mottled plumage looks like old wood or bark, the bill and bristles like the jagged end of a broken branch, and the untidy white spots and dark streaks are like lichens and sap stains on old timber. Yellow eyes look through narrowed slits; the head turns almost imperceptibly to follow an intruder’s movements.” 

Sadly Michael passed away recently.

Black-breasted Buzzard

The Black-breasted Buzzard is a large impressive and distinctive endemic raptor which is mostly found in arid Australia and the tropical north.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

While visiting a new NSW Parks property, Avenel Mt Westwood (1), about 130km NNW of Broken Hill, a Buzzard was encountered on Teilta Creek. The bird allowed close approach and seemed somewhat curious as, slowly and in stages, we approached the dead Redgum where it was perched. The late afternoon light afforded good light for photos. When the bird finally flew we noticed there was another one perched nearby. They both flew off together down the creek line. I suspect they do not encounter people very often as this is a remote area with few visitors, hence their confiding behaviour.

The following photos show an adult bird.

The following photo was taken just before the bird flew when it flattened its head feathers giving the bird a different appearance.

The following morning we encountered the pair perched along the creek line and when they flew one of the birds circled around us several times clearly checking us out and again indicating their curiosity. The following two flight shots were captured as the bird circled us.

Note: (1) 

The former sheep grazing properties were purchased by the NSW Government in 2021. This area is located in the Simpson Strzlecki Dunefields Bioregion which adjoins the Broken Hill Complex Bioregion to the south. Teilta Creek is a typical desert watercourse with a flat sandy bed and a narrow riparian area dominated by River Redgum. This is an extremely arid region so flows in the creek are few and far between.

The NSW Parks Service have recently developed the Teilta Creek Campground which is located just off the Sturt’s Steps touring route - an alternative route between Broken Hill and Tibooburra. The site features local history dating back to Sturt’s exploratory journey through the area in 1844 and subsequent grazing history since the mid 1860’s.