American Golden Plover at Pt Cook, Victoria – update

Following advice from Paul Dodd, (many thanks Paul), yesterday, Andrew Silcocks, Alison Kuiter, Dawn Neylan, David Stabb, Tim Faulkner, his wife and I saw the American Golden Plover on the shore at Point Cook. As reported on Birding-Aus, access to the Plover high tide roost in Cheetham Wetlands is now off limits. Currently, the bird may be seen 4-5 hours after high tide feeding with a flock of 17 Pacific Golden Plovers among the rocks on the beach immediately south of the Pt. Cook Historic Homestead. This is just a short walk from the Homestead which is open to the public Wednesdays to Sundays. So yesterday being a Tuesday it wasn’t open. We assumed that the track to the beach would still be open but we were turned back. So we parked our cars at the gate which leads to the tower and accessed the beach from there, then walked along the beach westward past the derelict jetty (see Melway Map 199). The first Red-necked Stints started to arrive on the beach at around 4 hours after high tide with the Plovers arriving at the far western limit of the rocks (zone H3 Melway map 199) about 4.5 hours after high tide. Perhaps partially because of our attention, the flock gradually moved eastwards. When we left them they were in the rocks in zone J3. The black belly patch of breeding plumage is developing but the upperparts are still very pale and grey with no golden spangling as yet. Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136 _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org