Ruth and I in the company of Bill and Jack Moorhead and Karen Blake saw the
Little Stint this morning around 11:00am at the first pond on the right when
entering the WTP by the Beach Road gate. Another birder saw the bird around
9:45 am but by the time we entered the plant it had flown off. We went to
the hide to see if it was there but no luck, so came back to the gate via
the coastal road. From the coastal side of the pond we had pretty good
views, but then it flew out onto one of the mini-islands in the pond. We
drove around to the other side of the pond and had amazing views - even as
close as 3-4 metres away. I'll post some pictures somewhere shortly.
There was no sign of any Red-necked Stints in breeding or semi-breeding
plumage in that pond, however on the ponds to side of the inland road to the
Borrow Pits, near the artificial cormorant towers, we saw a number of
Red-necked Stints in various stages of breeding plumage. The overall sense
that I got was that the Little Stint appeared much "brighter" and more
defined than the Red-necks. I'm sure that someone else can come up with a
more precise description.
Paul Dodd
Docklands, Melbourne
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of John Reidy
Sent: Sunday, 20 July 2008 10:40 AM
To: Birding-Aus
Subject: Little Stint
Hi all,
Caught the 6.00 am flight from Sydney yesterday to arrive at Avalon
airport and thence via taxi to the end of Beach Road near Lake Borrie.
Here I coincidently met up with Colin Judkins whom I had met in Cooktown
earlier this year. I was due to meet up with Alan Benson from the
Central Coast (of NSW) who turned up a bit later with Nigel (forgot
surname sorry) from Castlemaine. We had met Nigel at the site of the
Javan Pond-Heron in Darwin. We first saw the bird from near the hide at
the mouth of Little River at about 10.00 am and later at the first pond
near Beach Road. There were also 20 - 30 other birders in attendance at
various times.
Beware of a Red-necked Stint in breeding plumage. Fortunately we were
able to compare the two. The mantle lines of the Little Stint were quite
clear and were the obvious differentiating marks for the bird. The
photographs taken by Peter Fuller and Tim Dolby? seem to show the bird
as paler than what it appeared yesterday. The pale throat was hard to
see and the mantle lines appeared cream coloured rather than white as in
Peter Fuller's images. Could this be a function of light and
photographic effects?
I would be interested to see some images taken of the bird yesterday for
comparison.
Happy twitching.
--
John Reidy
Sydney
Phone 02 9871 4836
Fax 02 9871 2616
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