Birds and veg around Mallacoota

 This is more or less a random set of snaps taken around Mallacoota, mainly "because I could".

The first is a Whimbrel, seen at Betka.   When put on Mallacoota Birds a question was raised about Far Eastern Curlew, but the (poor) image has since been viewed by many others without demur, and the sighting confirmed by eBird.  It is the first August sighting of this species in the District as recorded on eBird. 

When Frances returned from her walk she commented about an odd looking New Holland Honeyeater, so I went hunting.  I did find a co-operative Little Wattlebird.

As well as various, quite normal, New Holland Honeyeaters (of which there are a lot of pretty antsy ones around at present).

Rainbow Lorikeet.

Eastern Yellow Robin

We revisited Betka, hoping for a better look at the Whimbrel, but it was elsewhere.  We did find 2 Hooded Plovers.

A couple of bits on interesting foliage.  First is a mix of Indigophera australis and Clematis aristata.

Second is some Gymea Lilies viewed from below.

On the 21st I went to Captain Stevenson's Point, hoping that there might be a White-fronted Tern hanging around before heading back to NZ.  Nope.  There was a largeish flock of Crested Terns, estimated at a glance as 300 birds.

I counted the birds from an image (marked each bird with a dot (and changing colour for each 100).  I marked 326 in this image and knew there were ~30 out of the image so a final 'count' of 356.

Something caused the flock to panic, but I couldn't spot a raptor anywhere in the vicinity.

The only other tern visible was a single Caspian Tern.   I find the relative sizes of the Tern and Bar-tailed Godwits interesting: are the Godwits smaller than expected or the Tern bigger?