Beach-stone Curlew

Beach-stone Curlews are officially listed as critically endangered in NSW – they are listed as  Vulnerable in Qld. In their NSW stronghold in the coastal Northern Rivers region there are thought to be about 13 breeding pairs. Resident pairs are sedentary and occupy breeding sites. Single transient birds recorded south of the Northern Rivers, including one or two birds in Victoria in recent years, are thought to be dispersing juveniles.

There is a resident breeding pair in the Brunswick Heads Nature Reserve with an area on Marshalls Creek tidal flats and fringing mangroves fenced off with information signs and warnings to keep out. Disturbance when breeding is the most critical threat to these birds - laying a single egg means they are slow breeders. Conservation efforts and public awareness via signage, coupled with fox baiting programs, may be helping to improve breeding and therefore increase the NSW population in recent years.

Beach-stone Curlews are coastal specialists specifically inhabiting the tidal realm and the fringing dryland where they target crabs – their massive bill can dismember even quite large crabs.

Recently late one morning on a dull overcast day I was fortunate to find the Marshalls Creek birds out in the open and within camera range – a moderately rare opportunity I suspect for this wary and mostly nocturnal and dawn/dusk foraging shorebird.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The two birds in the following photo were standing together among oyster growing gear and looked to be loafing.

One of the pair took notice of me but did not seem too concerned by my presence.

I then noticed a third bird nearby which started moving towards the two birds I had initially spotted.

It stopped to probe for food a few times.

It kept moving towards the pair.

All three birds were together briefly, however with a long lens, depth of field is very limited so getting images with all three birds in focus is impossible unless they all line up side by side the same distance from the lens.

The third bird then moved off back from where it had come and the other two to my surprise then walked towards me. I think this was a nervous reaction to my presence and a way of assessing if I was a threat or not. 

When photographing birds with a long lens it is only possible to keep one or two birds in the frame at once and therefore one loses sight of what the others are doing. From this point on I only had one or two birds in the frame with only one in focus as they did not come together in a close side by side position. 

The following portrait shots are of each one of the pair which I suspect are male and female. It is possible the third bird is an adult offspring from the pair. Three birds have been reported on a number of occasions in Birdata in the area since a recently fledged young was recorded on 21/01/20. Adult Beach-stone Curlews look the same – there is no sexual dimorphism.

After the last shot above the pair moved away and a quick look for the third bird revealed it had flow across to an island - the pair then joined it bringing my photo session to an end.

Hopefully the coming breeding season – September to November – will be successful for the Marshalls Creek pair.

Noisy Pitta

Noisy Pittas (Pitta versicolor) are mostly found in rainforest and near the coast in littoral rainforests and vine thickets (1) where they forage in deep litter on the forest floor. In spite of their bright colours they are unobtrusive in the low light of rainforests and are also somewhat shy, making them easy to overlook. Their loud, far carrying and distinctive “walk-to-work” call is often the first indication of their presence, however they do not call much in the non-breeding season.

Noisy Pittas are altitudinal migrants spending winter near the coast and in lowland areas and moving to higher elevation rainforests over spring and summer when they breed. 

I recently found an immature male Noisy Pitta in the Brunswick Heads Nature Reserve littoral rainforest. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The Pitta was foraging on the ground in deep litter where it was hard to follow and photograph through the tangle of branches and vines.

I moved slowly off the track and into the scrub – fortunately on my approach the bird flew up to a branch at about my head height and not too far away from where it observed me closely as I took photos. The light was low and even at ISO3200 I still only had 1/40 and 1/50 shutter speed though I managed to get fairly crisp shots for the following photos.

The bird, while in full adult male plumage, has a pinkish gape making it a first year immature from last breeding season. Pittas are distinctive with a relatively large bill, rotund body, very short tail and moderately long legs, however it is their bright multi coloured plumage that sets them apart on the dark forest floor.

It was pleasing to get some photos of this shy species – the immature bird may have been a little less wary!

Note (1) From Wikipedia

The Littoral Rainforests of New South Wales is a group of fragmented and endangered ecological communities found by the coast in eastern Australia. Much of this seaside form has been destroyed by mining, tourist development or housing. It is threatened by extinction in the near future. 90% of the 433 sites are less than ten hectares in size. Littoral rainforest amounts to 0.6% of the rainforests in New South Wales.

The littoral rainforests of Australia extend from North Queensland to Victoria and many offshore islands, with a minority found within New South Wales.

Wandering Tattler

Wandering Tattlers (Tringa incana) are an uncommon migrant shorebird in Australia where they are found on rocky shores and coral cay islands from Cape York south along the east coast to just below Sydney. Wandering Tattlers breed by mountain streams in Alaska and far east Siberia and most migrate to southern North America, Central America and northern South America.

The following screen shot from Birdata shows the Wandering Tattler’s Australian range.

The eBird database shows two records for Wandering Tattler in far East Gippsland and a few south of Sydney to Jervis Bay – see screen shot below. Sightings of Wandering Tattlers in Victoria seem to generate a lot of excitement for Victorian twitchers with a high level of evidence required to confirm a sighting this far south.

Identifying Wandering Tattlers is a challenge because they are very similar to the closely related Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes) (1), a migrant which breeds along stony riverbeds in the mountains of north-east Siberia. Grey-tails are far more common and widespread in Australia where they mostly frequent tidal flats – Wandering Tattlers are rarely found on tidal mud and sand flats.

Recently I had just completed a 2Ha 20 minute Birdata survey on the rocky coast of the Brunswick Heads Nature Reserve in NSW when I flushed a grey shorebird which I had not seen even though it was within the 2 Ha area I had been observing for 20 minutes. The bird flew a short distance to a rocky perch where I determined with my bins that it was a Tattler. The bird then flew closer and resumed foraging on the low-tide exposed rocks – there was a lot of exposed habitat and potential food items available. I soon realised this bird was the much less common Wandering Tattler which obviously was over wintering in Australia. For the next 30 minutes or so I observed and photographed the bird as it very actively moved about the rocks probing with its bill among the abundant molluscs. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

This was the only time I saw the bird in water – it seemed to avoid the waves as they crashed onto the rocks.

The bird mostly foraged on the seaward side of the rocks so I saw it intermittently when it came onto the shoreward side. 

The bird was very agile and sure footed even on quite steep surfaces.

The bird moved rapidly but stopped often to probe among the molluscs for food items.

The above photo heavily cropped shows the bird is prising a marine worm from the rock.

Given the Wandering Tattler is uncommon in Australia and it was winter when most of its kin would be breeding in far eastern Siberia and Alaska I was very lucky to find this bird at Brunswick Heads.

(1) Photos of the Grey-tailed Tattler can be found in this Avithera post here:

 http://avithera.blogspot.com/2019/01/grey-tailed-tattler.html

Tawny Grassbird

Apart from a few vagrant records the Tawny Grassbird is not found in the State of Victoria. In NSW it can be found north of the Shoalhaven River in coastal heaths including sand dunes and wetlands with dense reeds and rank grasses. From my experience this bird tends to be a reclusive skulker like the smaller Little Grassbird and the similar sized Australian Reed-Warbler (1) and often its presence is detected by its rather cross sounding ‘jk-jk’ alarm call coming from dense grass or other vegetation. During the breeding season males make fluttering tail down song-flights over cover when they are rather obvious. At other times one needs a certain degree of luck to find one in the open, especially for photos.  

Recently in northern NSW I was lucky to come upon a group of four Tawny Grassbirds foraging along a lagoon bank in dense grass from which one emerged to perch in a relatively open small shrub with the early morning light behind me. I have seen this species many times in various locations over the years but this was the first reasonable photo opportunity I have had. 

Please click on photos to enlarge.

The birds were foraging in rank grass where they were impossible to see as they moved ahead of me. Then one bird flew into some reeds giving a good enough view to confirm they were Tawny Grassbirds.

From there the bird flew from the reeds into a relatively open shrub on the lagoon bank – still not a clear view for a photo.

Fortunately the bird then moved up the shrub and into the open.

The bird’s tawny/rufous crown shows well in the next photo.

The next photo shows the whitish un-streaked underparts.

While some field guides note an un-streaked rufous crown, the crown can however give a streaked appearance as seen in the next photo. 

As the bird moved away it perched briefly to give one last photo opportunity which shows the heavy black streaks on the bird’s upper parts well.

Note (1)

The Tawny Grassbird could easily be confused with the similar sized and coloured Australian Reed-Warbler which shares similar habitat and the two birds can often be found in the same locations. For comparison with the Tawny Grassbird you can see photos of the Reed-Warbler in this earlier Avithera post:  http://avithera.blogspot.com/2020/08/australian-reed-warbler.html

Sacred Kingfisher

Sacred Kingfishers are equally at home in dry forest and tidal coasts and estuaries including mangrove forests. I recently photographed a male fluffed up after a salt water bath and was wondering about the origin of the name Sacred. According to Wikipedia it is called “sacred” for it is said to be a holy bird for Polynesians, who believe it to have control over the waves. Hence the name Todiramphus sanctus – sacred deriving from Latin sanctus.

While we know today Sacred Kingfishers do not control waves it is easy to see they are well adapted and at home in wave impacted coastal environments.

Please click on photos to enlarge.