With reference to the Knot picture, John Barkla has pointed out to me that the alleged curlew sandpipers in the water were stints. Some RNSs do have down-curved bills and the photographic foreshortening exaggerated that impression. Mind you there were quite a few CSs around, which thought caused me to look for an example of the 3 common waders feeding together, the following thumbnail being offered in that regard.
Coincidentally, John has just circulated the result of the annual bird count made last Sunday. This is for 25km around the Werribee site. The result was for the Western Treatment Plant: Red-necked Stint 4000, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper 700, Curlew Sandpiper 900. Helpfully, John also provided the overall tallies for the years since 1974, and these show wader numbers going up and down quite a bit, and that this year’s number are not really unusual either way. I am happy to send these on to anyone else interested in such things.
It does seem to me that that kind of survey (one team, same sites, count-all) does provide a more useful record of long-term trends with respect to various species than the COG blitz approach, although as I understand it the COG exercise does have rather different objectives, such as to enthuse the beginner and foster the cultivation of native plants.
