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G'day,
Over the past couple of days, following
south-easterlies, easterlies and north-easterlies (any wind with east involved
has potential) several interesting birds have turned up on or off Bribie Island,
70km north of Brisbane Qld.
Large numbers of White-winged Black Terns have been
seen offshore from Woorim, with 500 plus being the estimated number on
Thursday. Also on Thursday were 2 Sooty Terns and 2 Pomarine Skuas (just
can't bring myself to use the 'J' word) which haven't been around for a few
months. At Buckley's Hole on Thursday were at least 4 Roseate Terns, a
Sooty Tern and, after a single bird earlier in the week, 4 Sanderlings.
All of these species are extremely scarce in this neck of the woods. One
or two Lesser Crested Terns persist in the area and, earlier in the week, there
were 2 Whiskered Terns in the lagoon. Spotless Crakes (up to 6) and
Latham's Snipes (up to 4) have been sighted regularly, together with other
waders of local interest.
I'm not in the habit of making extravagant claims,
some might suggest unkindly that it's because of incompetence, but neither do I
want to keep quiet on a potential rarity. On Thursday, off Buckley's Hole,
Duncan Walbridge and myself observed a tern for about half an hour which was
unlike anything we'd seen before in Australia. We have written notes
(taken before consulting a field guide) which strongly suggest Antarctic
Tern. I would not recommend anyone searching for this bird at the moment
as (i) the winds have changed and it was not there today, Friday, (ii) over the
weekend the area is inundated with fishermen, dog walkers, picknickers and the
odd 4wd and (iii) we want to bounce our notes off a guru or two. In any
case, I'll re-visit the area next week and report back on anything if it's
positive.
Cheers - Trevor.
Please note that I do not currently subscribe to
birding-aus as I haven't the patience to search for messages concerning
birds. So if you want to berate me for suggesting such a species, please
reply directly.
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