Frank Antram,Sue Lashko and myself made the trip from Canberra last night to spend the day at werribee today. Melbourne certainly put on the weather for us with relentless driving rain for the morning, becoming almost tropical in the afternoon.
We had the Ruff in the bag within 30 minutes of arriving, in the t-section lagoon but it took us all day to find the Stilt. Indeed we only gave ourselves another 30 minutes to find the bird before we had to leave to catch our return flight…and there it was!
The stilt was seen in ponds adjacent to what i think are called the ‘wet paddocks’. It was associating with a number of marsh sandpiper, greenshank, curlew sand and sharpies. This provided an ideal opportunity to review the diagnostic features of the bird in comparison to the other species.
Other good birds included grey-tailed tattler and pectoral sandpiper. I am sorry about the poor directions, but if you need more info please reply to this email.
Finally, thanks to the other Frank from Melbourne who provided us with plenty of good oil.
Regards Alastair
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2 responses to “Stilt sandpiper seen at Werribee”
No, we drove through the gate to Western Lagoon and then went through the first gate on the left – on foot – and walked along road/track on the eastern side of the water. The birds were concentrated on the western edge of the water, some in the shallows and some in the grassy edge, but would have been harder to see from the road because of the grass growth and the light.
It was very useful to see the Stilt Sandpiper with Curlew and Marsh Sandpipers. They all have similar body length but Stilt and Marsh are very similar heights with long tibias very apparent. Stilt bill is noticeably thicker than Marsh.
The Ruff was seen several times during the day, including in this pond, as was the Pectoral Sandpiper.
Regards Sue
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So you saw it from Point Wilson Road then?
Peter Shute