At 23:26 10/10/98 +0800, Frank wrote:
>
>I received a phone call early this morning (Saturday 10th) from Diana
>O'Connor who is visiting WA from Queensland.
>
>She reported a couple of different waders from Australind near Bunbury. I
>very much doubt her possible identification as Long-billed Dowitchers, but
>from what she described there is a very good chance that they were Ruff.
>
>Australind is just north of Bunbury (about 2 hours south of Perth). She was
>staying at the caravan park. The road passes close along the shore of the
>Leschenault Inlet. The birds were slightly north of the caravan park, about
>50 metres from the road.
>
>I rang George & Rita Watkins who live close by this evening, and they had
>coincidentally been looking at waders at the mouth of the Collie River.
>They saw 8 Terek Sandpipers which are not common in the south west. No
>sighting of anything unusual, but they will have a look tomorrow at Australind.
>
In defence of Diana's observations, she's a very careful and competent observer,
having done a lot of work with the local Wader Study Group in Brisbane.
She would also be familiar with Dowitchers from Brisbane.
Perhaps I mis-understood your writing but I'm sure that she wouldn't confuse
Ruff with Long-billed Dowitchers. (Did she perhaps report both?).
Clearly one has to take care with wader reports, and confirmation with photos
would be best, but I'd take her reports seriously
Cheers
peter
Dr Peter Woodall email =
Division of Vet Pathology & Anatomy
School of Veterinary Science & An. Prod. Phone = +61 7 3365 2300
The University of Queensland Fax = +61 7 3365 1355
Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 WWW = http://www.uq.edu.au/~anpwooda
"hamba phezulu" (= "go higher" in isiZulu)
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