Stockyard Point

So it seems to take me a while to get around to posting about things on here, for example, this post is about a little birding adventure from about two months ago... eep!

I'd been meaning to take my mum birding at Stockyard Point for a while and so way back on the Labour Day long weekend in March we finally made it down.  We were hoping to see lots of waders before they left on their long journeys north, and maybe some in pretty breeding colours too. 

mangroves near Jam Jerrup

First up, there were about 85 Cape Barren Geese in the farm paddocks just before going through Jam Jerrup. I'm not sure I've ever seen that many together!

Then, after parking the car, we set off down the beach. You need to time your visit to Stockyard Point just right: waders use the point as a high tide roost, and you need get down there early enough to walk along beach before the tide comes in a blocks off access.

the walk down

Usually on the way down you can see some birds in a bit of a wetland over a farm fence, but it was totally dry that day.

no wetland birds today

We did however meet a kangaroo bouncing up the beach towards us. It stopped to check us out and then opted for the scrub instead of coming any closer.

kangaroo tracks

And as we neared the point about 11 White-throated Needletails flew over, heading in the direction of French Island - a nice sighting!

When we got to the point the tide was still way out. That's because I'd made us go a bit too early - oops! I thought I'd worked out from previous visits and others' sightings that a 1.6m tide was a good high high tide. But when I checked the tide times for this visit I saw they were all 3m or more... So yeah I thought the tide could be super high and the beach might get cut off earlier than usual but it turns out they must have changed how they measure the tides there or something.

yep, waaaay out

Anyway, there were some birds on the mudflats we could check out (and phonescope!) while we waited for the water to push some others over to us.

Gull-billed Terns and a Silver Gull

A small group of terns were there. This is a well-known spot for Gull-billed Terns, including a few regular individuals of the Asian subspecies.

there were Caspians too!

No matter the tide height there are usually a few cute little Red-capped Plovers hanging around here. And these guys are resident shorebirds - they won't be heading off with the others.

this one is a male

And one of the first birds we spotted was a Double-banded Plover. DBPs are migratory, but these plovers actually come to visit us for the winter from New Zealand.

badly phonescoped DBP

There was a distant Wedge-tail Eagle too, which landed on a fencepost, but too far for even good scope views.

Then I got a text message, which was a picture of my car in the car park. It turns out Leigh and his mum had arrived and were on their way down to the point too.

Together we waited as the tide came in and flocks of small waders started flying over to us.

Red-necked Stints

colourful Curlew Sandpipers

there were some Red Knots in the group too

And the sun finally came out, giving us some nice light to watch the waders all gathered at the point as well as plenty of non-wader birds who also came to join the roost.

Silver Gulls and Australian Pied Oystercatchers

Pacific Gull towering above the tiny waders

Crested Terns

and I'm pretty sure this is one of the Asian Gull-billed Terns on the right

Of course we were hoping some of the bigger waders of Westernport Bay like Eastern Curlews or Whimbrels would come in but we only had a fly-over group of the Curlews, and some distant scope views of them on the far shore.

all the birds

After it seemed like we had seen everything we were going to see, Leigh and his mum headed back up the beach and we followed a little while later. The tide was still pretty high so this was a drift wood obstacle course.

and it's slightly more challenging with a scope on your back

We got over all the wood, avoided the mud and eventually made it back to the car.

the view back down the beach

as opposed to when we'd arrived

A successful trip to Stockyard Point - and hopefully any of those little waders who have now left on their long migration have successful trips too and arrive in their breeding grounds safely! See you next summer guys!