I made a short visit to a few spots around Ocean Grove / Barwon Heads this morning. There were 10 Pacific Golden Plover on the rocks at 13th Beach / Black Rock, plus a few stints and a single red-capped plover. There was a group of 7 Black-winged Stilts with the gulls on the beach. I couldn’t find any Hooded Plover, or any other small birds on the beach itself – but in the 20 minutes I was there, I saw 3 dogs (all off-leash) with their owners. I thought this area was off-limits during the summer, but I couldn’t see any signs – I’m sure there were signs when I was here a year ago.
I know the Hooded Plover nesting area is being monitored on the beach a few km east, between Ocean Grove and Pt Lonsdale – the signs and barriers are up there. My wife saw a few HP chicks a little way outside the fenced area on this beach a couple of weeks ago. Not sure what has happened at 13th though.
Russell Woodford rdwoodford@aanet.com.au
PS Good numbers of waders at the Barwon Estuary this morning – c. 40 Bar-tailed Godwit and 25 Common Greenshank, 5 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and a single E Curlew: probably a lot more than these but my head was spinning as the temperature started to climb into the 30s so I stopped counting!
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
