Testing in the Swash zone.

 Birdlife Australia (BLA) have a programme of monitoring breeding activity by Hooded Plovers (Hoodies) along the beaches of Mallacoota.  They are currently testing some changes to the signage use to inform the public and particularly to see if it is possible to install some signs in the Swash zone (yes, I'd never heard of this word to cover the area between high and lower water lines before yesterday).  

So a group of locals and a leader, Mel, from BLA went to the Davis/Betka Beach areas yesterday to erect some test signs.  The numbers are recent Hoodie sightings: 1 and 2 are where myself and Frances saw families last Wednesday (vide https://mallacootaweatherwildlife.blogspot.com/2025/03/too-many-hoodies-are.html); 3 is where at least 2 Hoodies were loafing yesterday.

Here are the group shlepping the signs down the beach.  Note the trenching tool being carried on the left!

The trenching tool was quite efficient. but rather too short to give the depth needed so team members scooped out some further sand.

An erected sign.  It is roughly in the middle of the zone.

2 of the 3 signs, with the team heading off to erect sign 3.  

With the signs erected we went to Betka to check for the family of 5.  At least some of them were at position 3 in the image above.

We then progressed to Quarry Beach to check on the family there.  

Success (the 3rd bird was out of this initial snap).  It is apparently considered that this might be the family that have inhabited the Airport site (on the tip of the dirt runway visible in the image above).

The birds flew a little way, but far enough to prove that the young bird (on the right) has fledged!

Later on the evening of the 9th, Mel returned to the started of the Chip Track and installed an explanatory sign: a very good idea.  The QR code links very well to a Survey Monkey page with details about Hoodies and the signs.

Too Many Hoodies are ...

 ... Never Enough!  Thanks Roy and HG!

We went down the Stairway to Heaven this afternoon from the Davis Beach Car Park.  Headed down the beach and very close to where the cut through to the estuary hits the beach we were very pleased to see 3 Hooded Plovers.  All looked to be in adult plumage.

We proceeded along the beach towards Betka and to our surprise found a further 3... then 4 ... and finally 5.  Our eyes, and more importantly binoculars, showed the 3 we had seen a few hundred metres back were still there so that is 8!  To begin with the Betka crew were marginally uncooperative and I thought I might have to settle for a snap of 4.

However they finally got their act into gear and here are all 5 in one frame (after backing off a tad to fit them all in).  It gives a pretty good show of the difference between adult and (I think) Immature plumage.

I like this snap as showing the size difference between the Hoodies and the gull.

An interesting paddle

There have been a lot of waders on the sandbars in front of Captain Stevenson's Point in recent days.  As the weather seemed reasonable (not cold, and light wind although forecast to increase in an hour or so) I decided to fire up the kayak and go visit the area to see what I could photograph.

The first interesting element arose as I prepared to launch the kayak at the wharf.  After getting the kayak off the trailer, getting all the bits and pieces out of the Pajero and wheeling them to my launch spot, I realised that:

1.  the the two components of the paddles were different; and
2. I had picked up two with the female fitting.

So wheel everything back to the car, reload everything and drive home to pick up the needed male half of the paddle.  I was not happy.  However I got back and launched.  Here is my route: yellow arrows are in kayak, red are walking.

I will get to the birds in a while but will write a little about progress.  There is much more water than shown in the image and I was finding a good channel all the way to the Point but after turning across towards the island I could see that I was running out of liquid so the pedals were removed and paddling happened - perhaps for 100m: I was glad I had the correct paddles!  I dragged the kayak well out of the water (being uncertain if the tide was rising or falling).

When I got to point X on the walk I could feel the breeze getting stronger so decided that it was time to pull the plug.  Of course I was a little delayed by the Beach Stone-Curlew but launched OK (the tide was going out or the rising westerly was pushing water out).  Once I got going I found that the wind was pushing me around somewhat and the water was shallower than on the way out.  Pedals out and paddle:

• discovering how useful the rudder was in counteracting the wind's desire to send me to Gabo, and
•  praising various deities that I had the correct paddles rather than trying to remember how to do a J-stroke with half the set!  

Once back to the deep channel by the campground I was also sheltered from the wind and pedalled back happily.  

Here are some bird photos.

Pelicans and about 400 Crested Terns.

Bar-tailed Godwit; Red Knot; Red-necked Stint and Red-capped Plover

Red-necked Stints

This image gives an idea of the density of the birds as the whole shoreline was covered like this.  On thinking about it. possibly 300m long, 10m wide, at least 1 wader per 5 square metres.

As I was approaching the kayak I spotted a Red-capped Plover doing a distraction display and then in the background, this!  A/the Beach Stone-Curlew is back.  I shall try to do a review of the history of the species in Mallacoota but they are not common.

Lorikeets

 When we first started visiting Mallacoota large flocks of Rainbow and Musk Lorikeets were a regular sight in Summer.  Numbers of birds per flock seem to have declined, especially for Musk Lorikeets, in recent years.   I have had a look at eBird records and it is I suspect too complicated to produce evidence to support that claim.  However this year, especially in the last 2 months, numbers of Lorikeets seem to have risen again (if indeed they had dropped).

On our walk this morning there were lots of both  species in some Callistemons near Fisheries Jetty so I went back with a chair and my camera.

Rainbow Lorikeet on Callistemons

Musk Lorikeet on Callistemon

Yesterday I took a photo of a Rainbow Lorikeet on a Xanthorrhoea australis spike so include that.

Stretching the title of the post a little, a White-headed Pigeon posed nicely this morning so that also gets a go!

Very surprisingly I did not see nor hear any Scarlet Honeyeaters in the 30 minutes I sat there.  Usually flowering Callistemons are a magnet for them.t 

Testing the Kayak (again)

 For a range of reasons, but mainly poor weather and/or bogans in power boats, we have not used our kayaks for about a year.  I decided that this was the only way to get some snaps of the waders on the sand bars in front of Captain Stevenson's Point.  So I took one of the kayaks off the trailer and headed for the wharf to check things out.  I had three objectives for this exercise:

1. Prove to myself that I could launch etc the kayaks on my own.  A specific sub-objective here was not to fall in the water while launching or landing the kayak;
2. Get to check out the birds on the sandbar;
3. Not cause too much disturbance to the birds.

All 3 objectives - and the sub-objective - were met.  

The route was intended to avoid the sandbars along the way, thinking the channel serving the Campground moorings was a  pretty good idea.  So it was: trying to shortcut ran out of draught rather quickly but no biggy.  The last few metres (yellow arrow) were shallow, so pedals out and paddle in.  From a combination of Google Earth and eBird tracking I think the distance from launch to landing was about 600m, so not really worthy of a Viking saga.

Here is my track on the sand bar as recorded by eBird.  There was less exposed sand outside where I walked: the image was taken on March 30, I suspect at low tide (and there had been little rain for about 10 weeks).

Photos of birds,  These are not unduly high quality as I took my old Panasonic camera in case the sub-objective was not met!

Caspian Terns and Red-necked Stints.

Stints and Red Knots.

Stints.

WRT to objective 3 the birds seemed unfussed by my presence - I did TRY to maintain an ethical distance - apart from where a couple of Silver Gulls, not part of the main flock, went postal and the whole lot (my guess was ~500 Crested Terns) took wing.  They just did one circle and landed again.

There were about 40 Bar-tailed Godwits in 3 groups.

One Eastern Curlew - I think a male from bill length: IMO the female would be about 30% longer.

Altogether a pretty successful outing.  It seemed that the numbers and diversity of waders were somewhat less tan some recent visits.  No Grey Plover, Greenshank or Turnstone which being on migration have probably just moved on.  Only a single Red-capped Plover and no Double-banded Plovers (the latter having possibly gone to their breeding grounds in New Zealand).

Observations on 6 September

 The good stuff began early with a sighting on our morning walk of 5 Australian Figbirds (1 male and 4 females) near Broome St.  When we first came to Mallacoota as visitors (2013-14) a Figbird sighting would get people driving from Melbourne to add them to their Victorian list!  Then as we walked - probably giving our rate of progress somewhat the best of it - up the mountain that is Angophora Drive a small flock of 5 Little Lorikeets went over and scored Bird of the Day.

I swung by Cap'n Steve's Point later where the highlight was 10 Caspian Terns.  Here are some of them, mixed in with a few of the 500 Crested Terns on the sandbars:

There were 37 Bar-tailed Godwits on the edge of the sandbars.

In the afternoon we went for a walk up the Narrows, mainly looking for flowers.  Many of the orchids we had seen on previous visits had gone over but there were still a few good plants around.

Indigofera australis is beginning to hit its straps.

As is Pultenaea daphnoides.

Daviesia latifolia was an addition to the Sptember list for the District.  A classic 'egg and bacon' flower.

Glycine clandestina was evident rather than being clandestine!  (NB the big leaves are Hardenbergia, the sets of 3 are Glycine.

Viola hederacea

Another addition to the September list: Prostanthera rotundiflora.

Finishing off a good day, as we drove along Lakeside Drive about 6:30 a Southern Boobook flew in the bushes on Stingray Point.  We are likely to hear one later, so it didn't beat the Lorikeet for Bird of the Day.

On the Beach: Davis to Betka

 There was a monster swell running this morning.  I hope the next two images give a bit of a feel for it!

When we got to Betka we found a Pied Cormorant - in some taxonomies now known as a Great Pied Cormorant - and 2 Hooded Plovers sheltering from the wind.

A close up on the Cormorant showing the ivory bill and yellow face.

You can never have too many zoomed snaps of Hoodies.