Filed under:
Conservation, Global Warming by Ricki

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 [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Shorebirds by Ricki

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 [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Cool sightings, Shorebirds by Ricki

IS THERE ANY DOUBT in any nature lover’s mind that the Spotted Pardalote is among the most engaging, beautiful and sweet of Australia’s bird life? For many birders, that’s all they need to know: that they can go out into the bush just about anywhere on Tasmania or the east coast, south coast and lower [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Evolution by Ricki

MOST GROUPS or genera within the Sandpiper family have the remarkable ability to “see” what is beneath the mud or sand where they seek out the invertebrate prey (macrobenthic organisms) which lives there. Of course they don’t use their eyes for this task, they have a highly sensitive bill tip which helps them feel their [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Evolution, Shorebirds by Ricki

IT WAS AN EXCITING TIME for me at Boat Harbour yesterday. The morning (low tide) survey was amazing, with tens of thousands of shearwaters moving in massive flocks on the horizon, large flocks of Kelp Gulls (well for me anyway – dozen at a time) and plenty of shorebird activity. It appears that our Little [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Cool sightings, Shorebirds by Ricki

Whilst out on my weekly shorebird survey of Boat Harbour yesterday I dropped into nearby Quibray Bay. This is a favourite place of mine when I wish to surround myself with my favourite species, the Bar-tailed Godwit. I was not disappointed, with a foraging flock of around 170 birds working the sandy shore and mud [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Shorebirds by Ricki

THE KIMBERLEY, one of Australia’s and the world’s last great wilderness regions is under threat from the imposition of a Liquid Natural Gas Hub and “Pilbara style” industrialisation. The size of this development will dwarf the town of Broome and will attract shipping (and their bilge water and threat of oil/diesel spills) into the pristine [...]

Filed under:
Conservation by Ricki

WE’VE ALL WATCHED those nature doco’s where the large predator (generally a large cat, wolf or shark) takes its prey and immediately understand that an animal which didn’t measure up was taken. Perhaps it was not fit enough in some way. Perhaps it was young and dumb. Perhaps it was old and feeble. Whatever traits the prey [...]

Filed under:
Birding, Evolution, Shorebirds by Ricki