There was a full high tide this morning at the Manly wader roost [SEQ]
this morning, so there was a good turn-out ~ of the order of 1000
birds. There were hundreds of godwits, with quite a few well into
breeding plumage [one with a green flag]. There were also a quite a
few stints, with only a few in the early stages of colour change [one
with a orange flag]. There were also ~60 golden plovers with a dozen
blackening up nicely [one with a green flag] and the odd hundred
tattlers [at least two flagged - one with a green flag on the right leg
and another with a bluish flag on the left leg]. The Great Knots were
starting to dalmate and there were a dozen shanks in the freshwater
pond.
There weren't too many sand plovers hanging about, but one got my
attention. It was in a transitional plumage, with a lot of white on
its face [narrow supercilium and a hint of black across the top of the
face] and a reddish brown chest band. It's crown and back were a light
brown with some darker feather centres and darker primaries that were a
similar length to its tail. In flight, its legs did not extend beyond
its tail and there was a large white patch in its secondaries. It had
dark legs, and a short bill. It was most likely a Lesser Sand, but the
thing I found interesting about it was that it was sitting on the
seawall on its own - normally the sands congregate in the "beachy"
sections, and this character bobbed its head from time to time. It
also had more of a heads up posture than seems to be the guidebook norm
[which is why guide book illustrations should never be treated as
gospel].
Regards, Laurie.
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