Interestingly there were no other birders there at lunchtime today
just after peak high tide.
There were however more people and vehicles than i have ever seen down
there before.
As Tun Pin has mentioned the plumage didn't seem any different to when
i was there 10 days ago. Although the birds flew a few times i wasn't
able to get any decent photos. The smaller birds (including the
plovers) were 'sheltering' behind the large tern/gull flock and i
wasn't able to stalk around the terns without swimming or putting
everything up. So i had to make do with being able to get within 5m of
a Little Pied Cormorant and 5-6m of a Pied Cormorant that flew in
close to me! What a gorgeous bird! it actually distracted me from my
target but Tun Pin got better photos yesterday anyway so not too
fussed :)
The interesting thing about all the people was that the majority were
on the sand and the only people that disturbed the birds were a couple
of surfers coming back in across the rocks and a couple going for a
walk along the rocks. Yes the birds did fly a few of times but no
further than they did when the tide receded and they went out to the
exposed reef to start feeding (in fact the reef was much further away).
Cheers
Dave
On 29/03/2009, at 5:34 PM, Tun Pin Ong wrote:
Hi,
I went to Boat Harbour on Saturday morning and met up with close to 20
birders, mostly birding-ausers to look for the American Golden Plover.
Even the ranger at the gate entrance is aware of the bird also. There
were birders from Sydney region, Wollongong and Melbourne, some
novice(at least in wader watching) and some very experienced.
The bird did not seem to gain any noticeable new plumage since my
previous trip on 08 March. The bird still looked very dull despite
other Pacific Golden Plover has gained much of breeding plumage. The
weather was mostly sunny and great for photography and scoping. The
bird was easy to locate but tucked its head half of the time.
Chatting with many birders that the bird may leave anytime soon, based
on the timing of Pacific Golden Plover's departure in last season at
the same site.
I was expected to submit a report to BARC soon after the bird has
departed, with the assistance from many. Would appreciate anyone has
additional observation/notes/photos to furnish, particularly in the
areas of flight, call, behaviour etc that would further support its
identification to AGP, or towards PGP.
Following is link to the photos taken on Sat 28/03/2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009mar28/
Happy Twitching,
TunPin ONG
PS: Apology for not recognising many names at the site, would be nice
if you could drop me a private email to say hi.
--- On Thu, 3/12/09, Tun Pin Ong <> wrote:
From: Tun Pin Ong <>
Subject: Strange Pacific Golden Plover at Boat Harbour, Sydney
To:
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 11:19 PM
Hi,
The questionable Golden Plover was still at Boat Harbour
when I saw it on 08 Mar. It has some characteristics of
American Golden Plover although the ID has not been
positively confirmed yet. I have discussed with a few
birding-ausers offline, the ID sometimes leans towards PGP
and sometimes towards AGP, the situation changes as the
moulting progress or as we get more inputs from the
participants. At the moment, it seems that it leans more
towards AGP but any of your new findings or observations may
shift it either way, like tug-of-war.
I also learn from the group that there are about 20 records
of Buff-breasted Sandpiper in Australia but I am sure there
are far less than that of American Golden Plovers reported
in Australia.
Although the ID is still under debate, it may be worthwhile
for some of you to take a look (before it departs) to see if
you could further support the ID to either Golden Plovers.
Or if you think that this is simply not worthy to have a
secord look then please let us know also.
Some of the recent photos are found in the links below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009mar08/
Photo taken by Nikolas Haass on 01/03/2009 - nice side-by-side of the
birds for comparision.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009mar08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009feb22/
Earlier photos are found in following but most of them are
not very helpful in ID because the bird was still in
moulting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009jan23/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009feb12/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009jan16/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunpin/tags/2009jan12/
Best regards,
TunPin Ong
Currently based in Canberra
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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