Flagged Red-necked Avocets

For at least eight years now Red-necked Avocets have been present for extended periods on Jones Bay near Bairnsdale. Their numbers vary from hundreds up to around 2,000 birds. They seem to spend time, depending on weather conditions, and I guess food supply, between the Jones Bay Phillips Lane segment, Jones Bay proper and also at Victoria Lagoon at Hollands Landing - and possibly other places on the Gippsland Lakes I don’t know about. There is no record of them breeding on the Gippsland Lakes so the recent presence of juvenile birds indicates they have left the area to breed and have returned again post breeding with young ones.

While doing Gippsland Lakes Important Bird Area surveys of water dependent birds at Jones Bay recently I noticed some of the Avocets were resting along the Eastern shore of the Phillips Lane segment and knowing some of the birds were likely to be flagged I decided to approach them with my camera to see if any flag text could be captured. As it turned out six flags with photos were ID’d - they were AAU, CNL, AWV, CAZ, CND and AJP,  and a photo of each can be found below. A couple are very fuzzy but can still be deciphered.

I used my binoculars to find a flagged bird in the large flock and then focused my hand held camera with a 600mm focal length telephoto lens on the flagged bird. I took multiple photos of each flag hoping at least one would be clear enough to read the flag. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

At one point something spooked them and they all took to the air but soon circled around and came back, allowing me to capture two more flags making six in total. 

The flag sightings have been reported to the Australasian Wader Studies Group via the new Birdmark portal at https://vhost2009.hosted-sites.deakin.edu.au/importing/import.php 

You can find out more about Birdmark and how to use it to report any flagged waders you might find here: https://vhost2009.hosted-sites.deakin.edu.au/importing/about.php

The report I received from Birdmark showed the birds were caught and flagged between 2002 and 2017 on Westernport Bay at either Stockyard Point Lang Lang or Yallock Creek near Kooweerup.

I encourage birders to capture the text/numbers of any flagged shorebirds seen and report them to AWSG via the link above. By doing this you will be participating in citizen science by making an important data contribution to shorebird study. Birders who enjoy birds making the effort to capture flag details and report them is the least we can do as the mostly volunteer effort to catch and fit flags and bands to birds is enormous by comparison. Reporting flagged birds from beyond the catching sites adds great value to AWSG’s efforts. 

The best way to capture flag sightings is with a digital camera fitted with a telephoto lens or a camera with digital zoom, although a good spotting scope may also be useful - binoculars are rarely adequate to capture the letters and or numbers on flags unless you are very close to the flagged bird/s. 

Australasian Grebe

The Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) is found mainly in still freshwater wetlands and farm dams especially where aquatic plants are plentiful. As its other name, Little Grebe implies, it is our smallest Grebe.

Well adapted to life on and under water this bird is rarely found out of water and when alarmed will usually dive and swim away from danger under water rather than fly (1). They are regarded as weak fliers however I am not sure about this as they are found across most of Australia and recently a small population became established in New Zealand some time not long before 1977 when the first NZ breeding record was recorded from Diamond Lake near Wanaka on the South Island. To fly across vast waterless tracts of outback Australia or across the ditch to NZ is a significant undertaking though I guess the NZ birds could have rested on the sea during their pioneering flight/s. When they do fly to move to new habitat it is usually at night – no doubt to avoid predators (2).

Australasian Grebes take most of their food underwater. On the surface they look to be a bulky feathered bird, so must be able to readily reduce this bulk to control their buoyancy.

The Aussie Grebe in the following photos is in breeding condition and was recently photographed at the Byron Wetlands in Northern NSW. They are moderately wary, however now and again some birds will allow relatively close approach for photos.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

They do have a relatively long neck though this is often not always apparent.

Notes:

(1) Grebes do not have webbed feet but have lobed feet instead, an alternative evolutionary solution, to aid swimming. You can read more about aquatic birds with lobed feet here: http://avithera.blogspot.com/2017/06/aquatic-birds-with-lobed-feet.html

(2) Australasian Grebes have been recorded crash landing on outback station galvanised steel rooves at night – presumably they have mistaken the rooves for small dams or water. 

Little Terns, Northern NSW

Little Terns (Sternula albifrons) are listed as endangered in NSW and vulnerable in Victoria. The main threat to our smallest tern(1) (and the closely related Fairy Tern and other beach nesting birds) is poor breeding success. This beach nesting species is vulnerable to loss of suitable breeding sites and multiple disturbances from various predators, and from weather and human recreation on beaches where they like to nest.

I have been involved now for a number of years monitoring both Little and Fairy Terns breeding on the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria near where I live, so I am familiar with the trials and tribulations of small tern breeding efforts. Recently while visiting northern NSW I found a small group of Little Terns in the Brunswick Heads Nature Reserve at the Brunswick River entrance, resting with Common and Crested Terns. 

To my delight I found one juvenile bird amongst the group. This young one was raised during the 2020/21 breeding season and over the next few months, while still mainly in fledgling plumage, it will moult the strongly marked fledgling feathers, after which it will look like an adult non breeding bird.

Where might the juvenile have been raised? 

It is not possible to know, however it is likely to be somewhere on the NSW coast north of Sydney.

On my second visit, there were eight birds in this small group.  There were 16 the day before however I did not have my camera or time to approach them so I do not know if this bigger group contained more juveniles. 

Of the eight, one was a juvenile, three were adults moulting out of breeding plumage and four were in adult non breeding plumage. One of the non-breeding birds may be a sub-adult from the previous breeding season and has not  yet reached breeding maturity. 

The photos show each of the birds in their respective plumage plus some birds in full breeding condition photographed on the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

Juvenile Little Tern – at Brunswick Heads.

Size comparison between a Common Tern and the juvenile Little Tern which is close to the size of an adult Little Tern.

Adult Little Terns in breeding condition – these photos were taken on the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria where Little and Fairy Tern ranges overlap and both species breed together in the same colony. The Fairy Terns start first followed a week or two later by the Little Terns.

Fish presentation by the males to the females is an important stage in mate selection and pair bonding ahead of mating. Both parents share egg incubation and feeding of chicks.

The following photos show Little Terns in full breeding condition at the fish presentation stage.

Male with fish.

The female on the left has just accepted a fish from the male on the right.

The fish is promptly swallowed while the male looks on – the head held high is a common male behaviour after fish hand over which gives the impression the male looks quite pleased with himself.

Adults moulting out of breeding plumage – at Brunswick Heads.

Adult non breeding plumage – at Brunswick Heads.

I suspect this is a young bird from the previous breeding season that has not yet reached full adult breeding condition.

The bird on the right is in non-breeding condition, however there is little or no residual yellow at the base of the bill so this may also be a sub-adult bird? 

The bird left front is just starting to moult out of breeding plumage and the bill is changing colour. The bird on the right is more advanced in moult. The two birds at the back are in non-breeding condition.

Given the odds for breeding success are stacked against Little Terns in NSW it was especially good to find a juvenile from the 2020/21 breeding season at Brunswick Heads.

NOTE (1)

While as the name implies the Little Tern is our smallest tern the difference in size between it and the Fairy Tern is very small indeed. If the size distribution curves for the Little and Fairy Terns – typical bell curves – were overlain they would match closely with slightly more smaller birds in the Little curve compared with the Fairy curve. 

In the field the Little Terns can look slimmer in build compared with the Fairies which can look bulkier or plumper however it depends on individual birds and the way they are holding their feathers – either fluffed up or drawn in. 

Wandering Whistling-Duck

Wandering Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna arcuata race australis) are mainly tropical and subtropical ducks. They are migratory and nomadic and as the name suggests may wander even to latitudes well south of tropical including Victoria where they have been recorded in the past. Any birds recorded in Victorian would be vagrants and as such, a valued tick for Victorian twitchers(1). They are also found in the Philippines, Indonesia, PNG and the Pacific Islands. 

Wandering Whistling-Ducks look plump out of the water as they are large, moderately heavily built and richly coloured birds with modest plumes compared to the closely related and smaller Plumed Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna eytoni). They are diving ducks which whistle, particularly when in flight. Moderately common in small numbers in Northern NSW, I have photographed them on a number of occasions at the Byron Wetland. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The following photos are of one pair taken in one session. 

I waited, hoping they would fly for a flight shot or two, however in the end they turned and swam away, revealing the dark feathers down the back of the head and neck.

Flight shots from another session.

This last flight photo in the sequence reminded me of silo art as the bird flew past a metal tank.

Note (1) Birdata has nine Victorian Wandering Whistling-Duck records.

Seven were for a few birds recorded between 2000 and 2002 at Lake Guyatt in Sale – it looks like a few birds took up temporary residence in the Sale area for a few years. One record was lodged as an incidental report for three birds seen at Corringle near Marlo in 2011 and the other incidental record, also for 2011, was lodged for a bird (presence only recorded) seen near Nerrin Nerrin in Western Victoria.

PS: Since first publishing this post I have been advised eBird has Wandering Whistling-Duck records for 2019 – Dandenong Valley Wetlands (Sept.) and Lake Colac (December).

The most southerly Birdata record for Wandering Whistling-Ducks in Australia is in Tasmania where up to five birds were sighted at Lake Dulverton (Oatlands) between September and November 2011. Interesting that a small band of tropical-sub tropical ducks have wandered south to Tassie crossing Bass Strait in their travels. What drives journeys such as this I wonder?