Hi to all,
Last Thursday afternoon 30th Sept. at about 4.35pm I arrived at
the No1
boat launching ramp at the Broome Port area or Entrance Point
- Lat. 17:57:19S and Long. 122:14:19E and immediately noticed a bird on
the beach. To me this bird stood out not just because it was one of very
few on the beach at the time, there were also a few Silver Gulls and some
Red-necked Stints, but also because of it's bright colours, not
the usual browns and greys of the waders that are in this area.
I reached for my Pizzey and Knight field guide and was
able to confirm that I was looking at a Banded Lapwing-Vanellus tricolor - a
new bird for the Broome list.
The bird was on the beach directly in front of where I parked the car facing
east some 20 metres past the first boat launching ramp. The bird seemed
settled and quite at home,
walking to and fro across the beach, where he was occasionly picking at the
surface, although
as far as I could tell was not eating anything.
I observed the bird, with and without binoculars for the next ten to fifteen
minutes during this time I had excellent views of it as it obligingly walked
directly towards me, turned left and then right and finally came to a stop
facing
me when it came to the rocks some 10 metres away.
Shortly after I decided to go to the nearest phone about a kilometre away
and ring local ornithologist George Swann, as he was the nearest, to come
and observe the bird. Unfortunately he was out, so I then rang the Broome
Bird Observatory, (25ks away) hoping that Assistant Warden Adrian Boyle was
in town, but of course he wasn't; so all I could do was tell him the news.
I then headed back to Entrance Point to check how the bird was doing on the
beach.
During the time that I was away, however a half a dozen or so people had
arrived on the beach with their dogs
which are mostly allowed to run loose. Because of this even the Silver
Gulls had departed.
Since then I have spent quite a lot of time outside working hours trying to
locate the bird but with no
luck so far.
Broome is a long way above the normal range for Banded Lapwing which usually
cuts off just
above the Tropic of Capricorn.
Interestingly in his Handbook of Western Australian Birds, R E Johnstone
says these birds were unreported in W.A. before 1895 but that they have so
expanded their range this century that, according the the distribution map
they are now found in most areas of the state below the Tropic. Also he
states that they are partly migratory and head north during the cold of the
south, so quite possibly we will be seeing more Vanellus tricolor in the
Broome area.
Regards,
Phil Joy
PO Box 1510
Broome
W A 6725
Visit Broome Bird Observatory online at:-
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~austecol/observatories/broome.htm
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