Dear all,
I took a UK visitor to Boat Harbour (northern end of Cronulla beach,
Sydney) yesterday (Thursday). Conditions were ideal, with choppy seas
and a very high tide forcing all roosting birds on to a conveniently
small area of the rock platform.
Among the numerous Red-necked Stints was a Sanderling. This is a
species I know fairly well from Europe, and though this one was not
quite the classic Sanderling of the field guides -- it had a remnant of
reddish brown over its shoulder merging into the usual dark smudge at
the shoulder, as though the moult was not quite complete -- it had
everything else a Sanderling should have: pronounced wing-bar, dark legs
and bill, pure white underneath and soft grey streaking over crown, as
well as being an inch or so longer than the Stints it was consorting
with.
Also present:
Pacific Golden Plover c.25
Ruddy Turnstone c.40
Red-necked Stint c.150
Lesser Sand-plover 2
Sooty Oystercatcher 1
Little, Common and Crested Terns
as well as the usual commoners
John Clifton-Everest
Associate Professor John M. Clifton-Everest
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Sydney
(61) (2) 9351 2262
Fax (61) (2) 9351 5318
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