birding-aus

No SIPO seen in Brisbane

To: "birding-aus" <>
Subject: No SIPO seen in Brisbane
From: "Peter Marsh" <>
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:36:17 +1000
Dear Birders,
I had a look for the SIPO that had been reported at Victoria Point on Moreton 
Bay in Brisbane over the last month or so. I spent a good part of the day 
around Orana Esplanade. I arrived as the tide was going out in calm and 
slightly overcast conditions. There were a number of Pied Oystercatchers on the 
exposed mud as well as Grey Tailed tattler, Whimbrel, bar-tailed Godwit, 
Curlew, Pelican, gull billed Tern and a variety of other birds. When the tide 
turned the birds were driven back into a concentrated flock with a maximum of 
54 Pied Oystercatchers. I did not see any bird that looked convincingly 
different from the others to be picked as a SIPO. Eventually all the birds flew 
and there did not appear to be any bird with more extensive white on the 
underwing.

I had heard that the POs roost on the rock wall beside the Coochiemudlo ferry 
at the end of Victoria Point so I went around there to look. There were no 
birds on the rock wall which was not surprising as there was a fisherman on the 
end of the wall. As I watched a single PO flew in as though it was proposing to 
land on the rock wall, at the last moment it turned and flew off exposing very 
briefly, and by now in gathering dusk, what appeared to be more white on the 
underwing than the other POs had shown. This was a very brief view in poor 
conditions but I suspect that it is possible that the SIPO is still around but 
not always with the other POs.

As a side issue I would comment that an advantage of Birding-Aus over other 
bird sighting websites is that it allows recordal of non-sightings. Is the fact 
that there have been no recent sightings of the SIPO because no-one has gone to 
look or is it because they went to look, didn't see the bird but failed to 
report that.
Regards
Peter
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