By their bills shall they be known

 We went for a walk on Bastion Beach in the afternoon of 1 April.  It was very good for walking among waders.  My main hope was to get close to Godwits and pick out 1 (or more, being greedy) Black-tailed Godwits among the usual Bar-tailed.  We'll get to them later in the post .... or not.

On the subject of not ... or Knot ... during the Big Weekend in early March a number of folk recorded Great Knot in their wader lists.  My life list only has one record of this species, a very stringy effort from our time at Congo in the 1980s.  So I had been pleased to see one a couple of days ago.  EBird was not so happy and didn't endorse my record.  A key feature is the length of the bill relative to the head.  So I was very pleased to relocate the bird.

As I said the length of the bill is a key mark

Bugger.  

A more helpful shot!  Confirmed as Great Knot on Australian Bird Identification.

Perhaps as a result of including that image in my eBird report from 1 April both of my records are now confirmed by eBird!

While looking at a relatively distant (~100m away) sandbar I noticed 2 small white dots in front of the usual large flock of Crested Terns.  I have peered hard at the images and consulted books, and concluded both are Little Terns, in non-breeding plumage.

Somewhat later in the walk we found two more small terns.  Again they are IMHO Little Terns.

My best photo.

A few Red-necked Stints were also scurrying around.

Also a couple of Double-banded Plovers, without much of their breeding plumage.

Now, WRT Black-tailed Godwits a crucial field mark is the straight bills.  Some species are not co-operative.

This one's bill looked pretty straight.  The plumage looked reasonably plain grey.  Then I looked, at the photo, under the wingtips (at the very back of the bird).  Bugger (again).

Definitely a Bar-tailed Godwit.

As we were leaving 3 Black Swans flew over.  Not a great snap but an OK one to record the moment.