Nothing gets a birdwatcher more excited than news of a “new” or rare bird seen in the local area.
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News travels fast in the birding world and these days with smartphones and social media, the information is almost instant. This was the case recently with the sighting of an immature Hooded Plover on Stockton Beach.
Historically in NSW, Hooded Plovers were found north to Sydney and possibly Port Stephens. By 1900 they were rare around Sydney and by 2007 there were thought to be only 50 birds in Southern NSW. The last local sighting of this bird was in 1920, and was unconfirmed.
The bird sighted on Stockton Beach appeared after several days of gale force winds, with the possibility it was blown out of its normal range. The catch was that to view the bird I had to walk up to 8kms along the beach. – but I couldn’t resist.
Stockton Beach is a little like a highway and I soon realised you need to be vigilant. There were people with dogs, fishermen, cars and horses travelling at some speed along the wateline. I was constantly listening for and avoiding approaching traffic.
After walking approximately 3.5 kilometres, there was still no sign of the Hooded Plover. Realising that I had the return journey to make, I reluctantly turned back. It was a great disappointment, all that way for no result.
However I had only walked a short distance on the return journey when there it was, an immature Hooded Plover busily foraging in the receding waves. I couldn’t get my camera up fast enough.
The Hooded Plover is a tubby, small plover which grows to about 23cms and is found on sandy beaches. Mature birds have a black head (Hood), and white underparts and throat and a white rear collar. The immature birds lack the black hood and are a silvery-grey with orange legs and a red eye-ring and bill.
It eats tiny invertebrates, sand hoppers, small bivalves and Soldier Crabs, and forages on all levels of the beach but is most often spotted along the water line. These plovers lay their eggs in shallow scrapes in the sand. They are very susceptible to dogs, humans and beach vehicles damaging the nest and destroying the eggs.
All in all a successful result, bird seen and photographed and heaps of exercise as well.
