From September to November each year millions of migratory shorebirds are making their way south to Australia from their breeding grounds in North Asia, Japan, Siberia and Alaska. Their flight path is the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: a massive aerial highway marked by prevailing winds and driven by a wonderful behavioural trait known as “site fidelity”.
Reports of increased diversity and abundance of shorebirds in northern Australia in recent weeks has prompted me to be on the lookout for shorebirds at all the key locations which I frequent from week to week. A few days ago, my regular shorebird survey at Boat Harbour revealed a rise in numbers and diversity at [...]
The second year Red-necked Stint with more than a little adult plumage has successfully survived all that a Sydney winter can throw at a rocky headland (which is a bit like being flogged with a wet lettuce leaf – you’ll know what I mean if you’ve lived in Sydney this winter!). To read more about [...]
LONG REEF is the best place on Sydney’s Northern Beaches for a migratory shorebird encounter. It’s a brilliantly fascinating and vibrant intertidal, ecological hotspot: a real nature lover magnet! So it’s not unusual to find me stalking about the reef with scope and bins and magnifying glass, as I was yesterday, during a brief break [...]
YOU’D HAVE TO BE out of town to not be aware that there has now been two events at the Manly Little Penguin rookery this week where dogs have attacked and killed penguins. The death toll is now seven.
This is seven Little Penguins too many. These events highlight a convergence of problems that we have [...]
THERE’S STACKS of bird books on the market these days. Some highly technical, some basically informative and some are just good old fashioned coffee table celebrations. Every now and again one shows up which combines all of these elements and when it is full of images taken by one of the world’s great avian photographers [...]
RIGHT NOW most of the world’s population of Red-necked Stints are in the middle of raising their young high in the arctic circle (at least I hope that they are, given that they’ve experienced total breeding crashes the last 2 out of 3 years). The adults will return with their young sometime in September. Meanwhile [...]
On April 25, the Long Reef shorebird counting team conducted the first post migration count on the reef. Data collected elsewhere in Australia indicated that there had been failed breeding in 2008 by a number of shorebirds which breed in the high Arctic, including Bar-tailed Godwits (the race Menzbieri, which visit the west coast of [...]
On the north Western Australia coastline lies the small and charismatic tourist town of Broome. The town, established in the 19th century as a pearling centre has since become known as the “gateway to the Kimberley” and is a tourist mecca for lovers of nature, adventure and good times from across the planet. There’s plenty [...]
I’ve just returned to Sydney from my mozzie dome in the campground of Broome Bird Observatory, on the shores of Roebuck Bay, North Western Australia. During my time in Broome I witnessed tens of thousands of shorebirds preparing for their annual migratory journeys to Asia and, for many, well within the Arctic Circle on Northern [...]
If you know me and you’re into the “big” sightings, the unusual and rarities, you’ll work out pretty quickly not to bother asking me if there is good birding at any location. This is because my idea of a great day’s birding is to get a really good view of whatever is the common thornbill [...]
A vagrant American Golden Plover is currently on Merries Reef at Boat Harbour. The Birds Australia Rarities Committee (BARC) has not yet declared it so but judging from the over 100 people who have turned up at Boat Harbour in the last few days all keen to tick it no matter what, the vox populi [...]
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Dec | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |||
