Lake Ellesmeree Jan 20 2018

[Steve Wratten]

Mike Bowie, John Holland and I went to Embankment Road

1 imm. black-fronted tern, forced us to look at it closely
Wrybill at least 120-many' non-breeders'-does than mean birds of the year?
Banded dotterels-100 +

bar-t godwits 47
No stints or other arctic waders

[andrewcrossland]

370 plus wrybill at various points on greenpark sands from 2 km south-east of Jarvis rd to Wolfes Rd yesterday. A scattering of arctic waders, with 98 pacific golden plovers about 1.5 km south of Jarvis rd being the most notable. The plovers were in 2 flocks 159m apart , either side of a large pied stilt flock . Ellesmere typically has 50 to 130 pacific golden plovers but theyre seldom all together like this. Wrybill nos build up in this post breeding period and move north over jan- Mar.
Not much at crescent island or kaitorete spit tip but nice views of 5 arctic skua in the sea close to shore at kaitorete amongst several hundred Hutton shearwaters. Again both sp occur in good nos and close to shore in jan/feb every year.

[Matthias]

(there are currently several different threads about Lake Ellesmere. Maybe it would make sense to merge them?)

Last weekend I went to different sites around the lake and found the following birds:

Crescent Island (only southern edge)
4 Red-necked Stint
2 Curlew Sandpiper
11 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
1 Bar-tailed Godwit

Embankment Rd
200+ Wrybill
2 Curlew Sandpiper
30+ Red-necked Stint
3 Golden Plover

Wolfe's Rd:
1 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
1000+ Grey Teal
1 possible Chestnut Teal or stained Grey Teal (see photos below). Strangely, it doesn't seem to have any markings/streaking on the head. I hope to find it again and get better views.

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[Michael]

I would be thinking this is a small, eclipse male Chestnut Teal, with the smooth brown chest lingering from breeding plumage? I'm completely thrown though as it is an odd looking bird small in size and bizarrely marked.

[Ian Southey]

People (including me) get excited about teal with a bit of colour on them and in the field they would certainly be worth a second look. The breeding plumage of male Chestnut Teal is quite complex and if it has not fully moulted I would expect to see indications of other markings as well. Iron staining is quite common - you just need to look at the rusty Little Shags to know that you can expect it from time to time in other birds too.

Ian

[andrewcrossland]

Looks like someone has glued a scaup head to a grey teal's body...... worth keeping an eye on this one and seeing how it progresses through summer - but refinding it amongst thousands of teal at ellesmere would be no easy task....

[andrewcrossland]

I took a group of people involved in the upcoming (next saturday) Waterbird census of lake ellesmere to embankment Rd this morning fir a training session. Several hundred b-dotts, 40 plus wrybill, 3 sharp-tailed sands (1 poss a pectoral sandpipet bUT it flew away before we could examine it more closely) and 2 red-necked stints. I also had a look at Yarrs lagoon earlier and found mainly pied stilts with small numbers of banded Dotterels. The recent rain has provided good habitat all over the place so flocks are scattered and the whereabouts of the main arctic wader flock is unknown.

[andrewcrossland]

I had a look over Yarrs flat today with Doc ranger Tom Hitchon. 21 red-necked stint and 117 wrybill .

[andrewcrossland]

A nice common tern roosting amongst other tern sp at taumutu, lake ellesmetr yesterday, and 2 pectoral sandpipers at Clarks rd.