WHISKERED TERNS, BLUE-WINGED PARROTS, AVOCETS AND STILTS...

Well, the last post from Thompson Beach is actually a few months old. Despite the date on the post, it was actually written a while ago and saved in 'draft' form until I had the gusto to put it all together - words & images. After slapping it all together and uploading it, I felt incredibly inspired to get out there once more and see what the warmer weather and change of season would have to offer.

Sure enough the warmer weather and Spring season set me up for a half-day of interesting & intense birding. "Interesting" as the day yielded a few new species for my site list and "intense" due to the amount of ground I covered within 5 hours. On the central beach I was a little saddened to see, despite searching for quite a while, that the Double-banded Plovers appear to have exited for another year. But there were other mysteries to solve and other species to seek out. The first mystery bird of the day had me stumped for quite a while, a smallish Tern with a dark/sooty belly, solid black "pulled down" hood and a short red bill. It had me stumped for a while, partly due to the fact that the page I needed in my Pizzey & Knight field guide was stuck to another, I kept skimming past it, completely oblivious. The more I flipped through the 'Terns' the more confused I became, until I finally realised two pages were gummed together. Mystery solved....not much of a 'mystery' bird really but for a minute there I had a crazy idea perhaps I had seen a Roseate Tern. I had seen Whiskered Terns in the Northern Territory before but never in their splendid breeding colours. Fortunately for me, two of the birds landed ashore for a rest and gave me some great views.

Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybridus

As I scoped the two Whiskered Terns that had sided up next to one another, a single Fairy Tern came to rest on the same exposed area of rock. It's always nice to see this species anywhere along the coast. Reported to congregate in flocks of anywhere from 2000-15000 along the north-western coast of Western Australia, here in South Australia their status is not so secure. Across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania their conservation status is listed as 'Vulnerable'. In the 5 hours I was searching the northern section of Thompson Beach I saw a grand total of 2 Fairy Tern.

In addition to the Terns, there were good numbers of Red-necked Stint on the central beach, along with a few 'thin' looking Grey Plover, still showing patches of black breeding plumage through their face, throats and 'armpits'. Among the Stints I did manage to locate a lone Curlew Sandpiper and two birds on shore that I thought may have been Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, but I wasn't convinced. With much of the central beach covered and counted I moved on to the northern claypans and coast.

Within a few hundred metres of leaving the Esplanade I was startled by the 'tinkling' call of a lightning-fast  Neophema whizzing by. It sounded more 'bell-like' than an Elegant Parrot, at least to my relatively unaccustomed ear, so I was beginning to get excited - could it be an Orange-bellied Parrot? Well, no....as it turned out, once I crossed the first tidal channel my question was answered with amazing views of upward of 40 or 50 Blue-winged Parrots. A new species for me, I was careful to eliminate the other Neophema species that also occur in the area. With so many of them concentrated in one small area, getting a few decent photos proved to be quite easy.

Blue-winged Parrot Neophema chrysostoma

In comparison with both Rock Parrots and Elegant Parrots (here's my 2 cents worth....) the adult birds appeared to be a much brighter, 'citrine' yellow in the belly and lores. The bright yellow also surrounded the double-blue banding across the forehead of the adult birds I observed. In addition, the broad blue patch across the shoulder is also instantly noticeable, both when perched and in flight.

Blue-winged Parrot Neophema chrysostoma



It was great to spend close to an hour following such a large feeding party of both adult and immature birds. At one point a trail bike flushed a group of 6 or 7 and one newly fledged bird did its best to escape despite not having a fully developed tail! The birds continued to flush from the ground for a stretch of 150-200 metres wherever the seeding grasses and flowers pictured below were abundant.

On the claypans beyond the dunes I was surprised to stumble across a small group of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, right where I usually spend a bit of time trying to locate Spotted Crake. Sure enough, out there feeding with the Sharpies were no fewer than five Spotted Crake...all out in the open, feeding fearlessly while the conditions were good. The further north I followed the claypan margin, the more Sharpies I found. All in all, I counted 37 of the little waders, along with 17 Black-tailed Native Hen.

Sharp-tailed Sandpipers & Australian Spotted Crake

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata

After sitting and observing the Sharpies for a while I began to see a subtle size difference among the birds. The closer together they fed, the more obvious it became, with the male of the species recorded as appearing 'noticeably larger' than the female but otherwise identical. Whilst not a technically brilliant image I  think the picture below illustrates the size difference nicely, with the larger male bird in the background.



Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata

As the afternoon wore on I decided to take a different path back to the car and opted for a long walk back via the larger, more easterly set of claypans. These claypans are almost devoid of thicker shrubby glasswort and samphire cover around the margins and in part are quite degraded due to trail bike riding. I wasn't expecting much but thought I may find some Teal or Shelducks out on these deeper backwaters. As I crested the small, shrubby duneset I was greeted by the sight of over 200 Banded Stilts sunning themselves atop of a sandbar in the middle of the largest claypan. A few hundred metres away, bobbing about on the water were a group of 6 Red-necked Avocet. Both new species records for me at this site. Excellent!

Banded Stilt Cladorhynchus leucocephalus

Red-necked Avocet Recurvirostra novaehollandiae

Not the greatest pictures I agree, but decent enough for my records at least.

Upon returning home I logged my sightings for the day and then checked my tally of total species logged for Thomspon Beach - I have just hit 75 birds in total, averaging a visit once every three weeks for the past 12 months.

Time for a 'self high-five'....

....nerd.