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Hi All.
Just a quick report on a dash down to Werribee made
by Robin Benson, Alan Morris and me to twitch the Red-necked Phalarope and
Long-toed Stint reported recently.
We left the Central Coast (NSW) at 5am, Friday 30th
and travelled through to Werribee, arriving about 3.30 pm. Basically straight
round to the Treatment Works and to the 35E Conservation ponds. We we confronted
with a huge number of waders and despite a search with 3 scopes, failed to
see either of the target species on the western pond.
Moving to the eastern pond we again found a very
large number of waders that we tried to sift through. We were mainly concerned
with finding the Phalarope at this point as it would be a new bird for all three
of us. ( Only AKM had yet to see the Stint).
We figured the Phalarope would stand out, so
failing to see it here we went round to the 85WC pond where it had first been
found. Plenty more waders here, but within a few minutes we were onto the
Phalarope! It was across the pond near a long line of Shelducks. We watched the
bird for quite a while, being captivated by the energy of this dainty bird. It
never stopped moving for more than a second, going back and forth along the line
of Shelducks, occasionally doing its little spin, mostly anticlockwise, but I
did see one short clockwise spin.
Feeling very chuffed (or is that choughed?) we
decided to head back to the 35E ponds to try for the Stint again. We went back
via the shoreline, seeing many more waders roosting or feeding there. We
estimated about 10 000 waders all up, but how accurate this figure is anybody's
guess.
Back at the western 35E pond, wader numbers were
much lower than before. We checked the eastern pond and numbers were better
there, so we tried our luck. Within a short time we had a Long-toed Stint in all
our scopes. Fortunately, it was very near the road where we were parked,
otherwise I don't know if we would have picked it from the many hundreds of
Red-necked Stints scattered over the large pond area.
Also fortunately, we were able to observe it with
both Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and RN Stints. We could clearly see how different
it was to the other Stint. It has been described in books as like a 'small
Sharp-tailed SP' and we all agreed this was an apt desciption. We also noted
it's different feeding habits to the RN Stint.
We continued watching this bird, having a
celebratory ice-cold drink, and then headed back for dinner and bed. Up early
next morning and home by 4.30 pm, Saturday 31st.
Many thanks to Bob Swindley and Danny Rogers for
finding these birds and for others' reports to Birding-Aus to let us all know
about them.
Regards,
Rob Quinan
Central Coast, NSW.
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