The March walk was our farewell to waders, as next month they will be on their extraordinarily long and hazardous annual northerly migration…10,000 kilometres one-way!

Our ocean and saline mudflats provide a mass of seafood for adult birds, but the chicks with their tiny-bills need the abundant summer insects  of the Arctic.

On arriving at Blue Rocks we hardly needed the telescopes to see a flock of tiny waders on the sand.

Far over on the edge of the rocks we were pleased to see a group of the larger, and less common, Pacific Golden Plovers, however they flew away before we could photograph them.

When we had seen enough we tried Hospital Swamp which, though rapidly drying out, contained sufficient wetness to keep flocks of waders busily feeding.

Two groups of small plovers ventured out from the vegetation and, on the far side, there was one timid Spotted Crake, plus a pair of hovering Whistling Kites. Flocks of ducks and swans also flew over looking for wetter locations.

At Barwon Estuary, one Caspian Tern displayed his gorgeous red beak, and there were hundreds of swans, just beautiful in flight.

Ocean Grove Reserve was very dry but a Yellow Robin gave us the once over, and we were entertained by the delightful call of a Rufous Whistler.

When birds were in short supply we enjoyed the dragonflies.

An Echidna entertained us by hiding his head in hole, just like a small child who thinks they cannot be seen.

The tally of 54 species for the day, which included many bush birds, was very satisfactory:

1. Black Swan
2. Grey Teal
3. Chestnut Teal
4. Crested Pigeon
5. Little Pied Cormorant
6. Great Cormorant
7. Pied Cormorant
8. Australian Pelican
9. Cattle Egret
10. White-faced Heron
11. Australian White Ibis
12. Straw-necked Ibis
13. Black-shouldered Kite
14. Whistling Kite
15. Purple Swamphen
16. Australian Spotted Crake
17. Black-winged Stilt
18. Pacific Golden Plover
19. Red-capped Plover
20. Double-banded Plover
21. Black-fronted Dotterel
22. Hooded Plover
23. Red-kneed Dotterel
24. Masked Lapwing
25. Common Greenshank
26. Red-necked Stint
27. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
28. Curlew Sandpiper
29. Caspian Tern
30. Crested Tern
31. Pacific Gull
32. Silver Gull
33. Blue-winged Parrot
34. Superb Fairy-wren
35. White-browed Scrubwren
36. Yellow-rumped Thornbill
37. Brown Thornbill
38. Singing Honeyeater
39. White-plumed Honeyeater
40. Noisy Miner
41. Red Wattlebird
42. White-fronted Chat
43. New Holland Honeyeater
44. Rufous Whistler
45. Grey Butcherbird
46. Australian Magpie
47. Grey Fantail
48. Willie Wagtail
49. Little Raven
50. Magpie-lark
51. Eastern Yellow Robin
52. Silvereye
53. Welcome Swallow
54. House Sparrow

Ellinor Campbell

Bird photos by Margaret Lacey

Dragonfly photo by Lynn Bunning