Once (or twice) more on to the beach ...

 Warning: this post includes a picture of a dead bird.  Apparently that upsets some people: if you are such a person I suggest stop reading now.

By mid-morning on 26 August cabin fever was fairly evident so we put on our wet weather gear and took ourselves off to Bastion Point.  There was a lot of seaweed washed up on the beach and in some places (eg the track to the Campground) this showed the wash had evidently gone over the top and through the dunes.

The sea was still very rough!

A reasonable crop of small waders (about 12 Red-capped Plovers, 2 Double-banded Plovers and 1 Red-necked Stint were running along the beach, dodging out of the incoming waves.  The Inlet was quite full of water, as it was getting a double whammy: a strong Southerly blowing water in from the ocean and sustained rainfall flowing down the rivers. As a result there were limited sandbars available for birds to occupy.

Unfortunately as we got to this interesting group a squall came through, with strong wind and rain.  So I basically noted a few birds and headed for home.  

Here is the route.

Point 1 is where I took the photo of the flock, 2 is the track lined with seaweed, indicating over-topping  and 3 is where Frances decided the water level was too high, and headed back to the beach.

This is the initial photograph of the flock.

Hear the words of Milburn! "Look at every bird!"  Silver gull (blue arrow) - obvious.  Bar-tailed Godwit green, Red-capped Plover orange and Crested Tern pink.  All normal and expected  However, I then noticed an outlying Tern -  Red arrow.  On the principle of better late than never I peered closely and it was a White-fronted Tern.  Add one species to the list!

When I got home I found a friend had sent a message with a photo of a dead bird found on the beach between Davis Creek and Betka Beach.  She asked for help with ID suggesting Albatross.  A Labrador was included for sizing!

Certainly a large pelagic bird.  The bill was clearly wrong for Gannet so I felt it was indeed an Albatross, and the colouring of the bill in particular suggested juvenile Shy Albatross to me.  I put the image on Australian Bird IDentification Facebook group where an expert suggested Shy Albatross, possible a NZ bird.  I went back to try to find the body, even though my friend suggested it had probably been washed out again.  She was correct.

My friend revisited the beach on 27 August and could not relocate the corpse.  She reported that the Sperm Whale jawbone, which has been on the beach for a few months, has also gone away.

On the 28th we went back to Bastion to see what was around.  The first thing noted was what was not around, being about 50 cm of sand at the foot of the steps!

Taken together with the presence of some kelp at the foot of the higher set of steps in that image, this confirms that there has been some very rough weather.

Out past the dunes a fair number (my count was 47) of Bar-tailed Godwits were present.  I tried hard to turn one into a Black-tailed Godwit but no ....

It is not unusual to see a Caspian Tern around the area but today 3 were chasing around.  Here are two of them.

There were some interesting patterns in the sand.

We didn't spend much time out on the sand as it seemed to be very soft: not quite quicksand, and not even the boggy mud of the Essex marshes, but still rather disconcerting to walk on.  As we turned we were surprised to find the waves washing over the rea we needed to walk over, which had been dry when we walked out 15 minutes earlier.   No biggie, as it was at most 5 cm deep, but a salutary lesson to pay attention to what is going on around oneself when the sea is involved.