Quarry Beach and the Airport

On 31 March we went to Quarry Beach for some exercise, which was taken.  There were 4 other cars there but this didn't make the beach prone to antisocial distancing so we carried on.

At the Western end of the beach we came across a flock of 7 Australian Pied Oystercatchers.  I had initially thought 2 of them were banded and flagged but on reviewing my photos I found I had got pictures of 3 different flags.

This is #85 which I had seen a couple of weeks ago.  It was originally banded at Corner Inlet (400km West) in August 2010 by the Victorian Wader Study Group.  At that time the bird was aged as 4+ years of age, so it is now at least 14 years old.  HANZAB is silent on the maximum age for the species but a site on American Oystercatchers says some members of the genus may reach 20 - 40 years.

 I tried to get a photo of the second flagged bird and it helpfully jumped.

Looking at the image I am pretty sure it was in fact #85 again.

However trying again I found flag SL doing an Ostrich impression ...

 .. and later, coming back to the car, #9A  was checking out the wrack line.

The sightings have been reported to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme.

I believe it is OK to return home by a slightly different route - especially if we don't get out of the car - so we swung around the airport.  There were quite a few flowers in the heath.   This is I think a Goodenia.

 No idea (beyond dicotyledon) on this one!

 Probably a Coronidium.

Getting round to the Gun Club track we saw our first bird.  It flushed from the side of the track at a high velocity.  The flight style was rather strange, making me think of a snipe - which would be bizarre in dry heathland.  Fortunately we saw where it dropped and creeping along the track Frances was able to see it and direct my vision to it.  Here is an image of some in-focus grass.

The bird went under the fence and a somewhat clearer image resulted.  That was good enough for some other members of the Mallacoota Birds FB group to identify it as a Blue-winged Parrot (rather than my assumption of Ground Parrot which I had seen here in the past).  Woo - hoooooo!  A lifer for me.  Blue-winged Parrots have been seen at this site in the past - perhaps 20 years ago -by very eminent birders.