Judging by the entries in the various reference books I have in my possession,
information on the
status of Wandering Tattlers in Australia during the Australian winter appears
to be somewhat
lacking.
Whereas Grey-tailed Tattlers are widely noted to 'over-winter' in fair numbers
there is almost no
comment of that happening with Wandering Tattlers.
As far as I can tell, none of the Australian field guides mention
over-wintering by Wandering
Tattlers and no comment is made for either species in HANZAB.
The first Atlas of Australian Birds mentions that few Wandering Tattlers remain
over winter whereas
some Grey-tailed tattlers remain during that period. I am not sure what the
distinction is between
'few' and 'some'. The second Atlas of Australian Birds shows that a report (or
reports) of Wandering
Tattler/s was recorded in northern New South Wales during the period 15 June to
15 August.
The Shorebird volume of The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife
states that Wandering
Tattler is recorded in Australia during all months but mainly September to May.
The new Shorebirds of Australia (Geering, Agnew, Harding) does not mention
aspects of
over-wintering.
In our continuing pursuit of more and better photos and more and better
information on the
identification of Wandering Tattlers Paul Walbridge and I visited Point
Cartwright on the Sunshine
Coast of South East Queensland during last Sunday, 24 June.
Pt Cartwright is a well know location for Wandering Tattlers during the
Australian summer and Paul
and I have visited there a number of times over the past couple of years. We
have observed and
photographed Wandering Tattlers at that location on all of our visits.
Last Sunday, to our surprise, we found and photographed two Wandering Tattlers.
One was a (presumed) second summer plumage bird and the other was an adult in
partial breeding
plumage.
Both birds were identified by observing a variety of diagnostic features and
the flight call.
We have also recorded and photographed Wandering Tattlers a number of times at
Caloundra Point,
Caloundra, a short distance south of Point Cartwright in SE Qld, during summer
over the past two
years. We did not find any tattlers of either species during our visit there
during last Sunday.
We believe that it is probable that the two Wandering tattlers we observed at
Pt Cartwright are
'stayers' and that, therefore, some Wandering Tattlers do over-winter in SE
Queensland.
Considering the difficulty inherent in identifying non-breeding plumage
Wandering Tattlers,
observers should take great care with their identifications of tattlers on
rocky shorelines
particularly at this time of the year.
Images of the two birds taken by Paul Walbridge can be seen at:
http://users.tpg.com.au/inglisrc/wandtatts24062007.htm
Cheers
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
Australia
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