We revisited Bastion Beach on 6 November, mainly to do a telescope peer at the sand dunes for Little Terns. I selected a route that gave me a look in to Devlins Inlet, hoping to see some Whiskered Terns hunting over the water. No luck with that but I did find a group of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers.
I am always surprised how small they seem when seen with species such as Silver Gulls as opposed to on their own.
Getting towards the shore, a first sighting was the appearance of some signs warning of the presence of nesting Hooded Plovers: a very good idea. I didn't pick up any Hoodies but hopefully that was my problem not theirs. As I got to the shore Frances - who was strolling along the shoreline - alerted me to the presence of ...
... dashing up and down the wash-line. This behaviour and the very white appearance had me thinking "Sanderling" which has been confirmed by other members of the Mallacoota Birds FB group. An addition to my Mallacoota list (and a species I haven't seen anywhere for many years).
Eventually I spotted - from about 100m distance -two Little Terns landing in the dunes. They visited the same area several times suggesting to me that they have nesting on their mind. The images were taken through my telescope at 60 X magnification (plus a bit of zoom on the phone).
The extension of the black line right to the base of the bill rules out Fairy Tern unfortunately (in not adding to the length of my Mallacoota list).
Also in the dunes were several Red-capped Plovers sitting firmly. I suspect there are eggs under there.
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