Plovers on the sand and Kites in the wind

The last few days of our holidays we spent down the South-east. Despite the fact the pelagic trip had been called off we thought we needed to give ourselves the chance for some of the key difficult species we still need down there. Bob Green had messaged me to say he had White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes at two different locations the previous weekend, so we started there, in Bangham Conservation Park and also in Geegeela Conservation Park. No sign of our quarry at all and we opted to move off down to the forests near the border to try once again for Powerful Owl. A spotlighting session resulted in lots of Ring-tailed and Brush-tailed Possums with a handful of Koalas but not a sniff of the Owl. A stop off at Telford Scrub to try for non showing Satin Flycatchers on the way home and that was all she wrote.........our first tickless weekend. Given how much we've seen so far this year and despite the amount of species still to search for we knew this would happen eventually but it did put a downer on the end of the holiday.

On the way home we were contacted by Paul Taylor who's been keeping tabs on the shorebirds of the upper Gulf St Vincent. He'd just picked up a few Greater Sand Plovers at a regular spot he watches. With us still four hours away from home and the Sand Plovers another hour beyond that we knew we'd never make it by the end of the day. We got home and vowed to have a go the following weekend and hope they stayed. In the interim we had to go back to work.

During the week we also received some intel about the whereabouts of Square-tailed Kites. We'd put out an appeal for info on this species after failing to find any sign of them at a spot north of where we live. There had been several sight records already this spring but no one seemed to have pinned them down to any one spot. This time our information was about a breeding pair so we knew we'd have a much better chance of connecting with them so we decided to do shorebirds on the Saturday and try for the Kite on the Sunday.

Early Saturday morning saw us up well before dawn with an intention to make the most of the early morning high tide predicted for the upper gulf. We got to Port Clnton by 6:45am and we started to scan the birds coming in with the tide. Initially we scoped quite a few Red-necked Stints, Curlew Sandpipers and Red-capped Plovers. Despite the presence of a few Turnstone, Grey Plover and a single Bar-tailed Godwit and Far Eastern Curlew there appeared to be no sign of our target. Paul had mentioned they only seem to occur on passage in this area and don't hang around all summer like some of the other birds do and we wondered if they'd moved on already. I scoped out further around the bay and noticed another concentration of birds in front of some shacks, so we moved camp to there. Getting out of the vehicle and walking along the track to view the beach the first bird I clapped eyes on was a single Greater Sand Plover.........our target bird!! Sue came over and we had a more thorough look through the birds gathered on the beach and located another two individuals......nice!

Greater Sand Plover on the beach at Port Clinton

Two of the three birds present with Red-necked Stints for scale!

There were quite a lot of birds just here and we enjoyed scanning through the mixed flocks to see if we could winkle out anything else of note. In the end it appeared the Sand Plovers were the only new bird for the year but a very good one to get. They appear very sporadically in SA these days and usually in very low numbers.

A single Far Eastern Curlew dwarfs the other shorebirds it's sharing a roost site with

With that we continued back towards town near the boat ramp to see if any other Shorebirds were roosting here. Closer to the Mangroves provides a slightly different habitat type and so attracts some different Shorebirds. Firstly we found a small flock of Common Greenshanks and in with them were three Grey-tailed Tattlers and several Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. None of which we had seen on the open beach. From here we decided to check out Chinamen Wells again on the west coast of Yorke Peninsula and drove for half an hour or so to get there. Earlier in the year we had seen good numbers of Red Knot and Bar-tailed Godwits there and the place impressed me as having good potential for other species like Sand Plovers. We now had Greater but still needed Lesser but none had been reported anywhere so far this season. On arrival the tide was still quite high despite having turned already and we found some Red Knots quite quickly along with more Grey Plover. There weren't big numbers of waders here though and it didn't take long to go through all that was there. Just as well really as a family on Quad bikes rode past along the beach and flushed everything any way!!

 Red Knots and Grey Plover at Chinamen Wells

Pied Oystercatchers on the beach at Chinamens

With a  view to exploring more potential shorebird habitat we opted to drive back across the peninsula to Macs Beach south of Price. Neither of us had been there before but had heard it can be good for Shorebirds. On arrival I casually walked down to the top of the beach and was blown away by the sheer number of birds along the tide line. Despite the fact the tide was already dropping there were thousands of birds as far as the eye could see to the north and to the south towards Ardrossan. With the scope out we found good numbers of Great Knots, Red Knots, Bar-tailed Godwits, Turnstones, Red-necked Stints, Curlew Sandpipers and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. A very impressive array of birds.

Scoping out Macs Beach on the falling tide

Despite that though we couldn't find anything we had not already seen this year. We made a mental note to check this site regularly over the next few weeks to see if we can pick up any of the other missing difficult birds we need like Lesser Sand Plovers, Broad-billed Sandpipers and Whimbrel. After calling in to Bald Hill Beach on the way home we called it a day satisfied with picking up another bird for the year.

A lazy Sunday sleep in was pleasant and we leisurely had breakfast together. The forecast weather for the day was for strengthening winds ahead of a front coming in by the end of the day. It was already blowing a bit during breakfast so we opted to get moving to try for the Square-tailed Kites we'd been told about during the week before conditions deteriorated too much.

We arrived at the site not too long after and followed the instructions we'd been given. A short walk down an ashphalt track and we were to stop at a designated spot and look up. We did as instructed and looked up directly at a stick nest high up in the fork of a tree still some distance in front of us. A quick scan with the bins and sitting hunkered down was a single female Square-tailed Kite. Most excellent!!! The wind was really starting to pick up and small branches of the trees around us were snapping off and falling to the ground. I set the scope up and we viewed the bird from a distance. Sue remarked that watching the nest sway around in the image almost made her feel sea sick! At that point the male flew in.

 The male Square-tailed Kite being buffeted by the wind

He struggled to settle with the wind whipping up around him and he constantly shifted spots to try to find a more comfortable perch.

A battle with the wind caused the bird to constantly preen. It's long wings
seeming to be more of a hindrance than anything else

Constantly shifting to find a less exposed perch

Every time he moved he was constantly harassed by nearby Australian Magpies and a male Kestrel. At least we appreciated the birds presence even if they didn't. In fact we really appreciated the birds as they represented the last species of Birds of Prey that we needed to see in South Australia this year. We'd managed to see every other species up to this point and that fact wasn't lost on us. High fives all around.

Sue enjoying crippling views of our quarry

With that we were done. We had no plans for the rest of the day so we went home and enjoyed the rest of the weekend relaxing at home. We won't be relaxed for long though as we'll be hitting the northern Gulf of St Vincent again next weekend. Some of the other birds we need will have to wait until we can return to the south-east where the majority of them reside. Hopefully that will happen when we go down for the two remaining pelagic trips for the year..........hopefully!!!

Once again our success comes down to the generosity of the greater birding community in passing on site gen. We've been in the field a lot this year and found a lot of birds ourselves for the Big Year but we can't be everywhere and it would be folly to think we could achieve this without help. So thanks to all who have, and are, helping us along the way.

That takes me to the heady heights of 369 species and Sue on 367. The discrepancy can be attributed to Barbary Dove and Pectoral Sandpiper. We'll make sure Sue picks those up before the end of the year. We'd really love to see this thing through to the end on the same total whatever that ends up being. See you next time.