March visit to Pelican Island

The waders are colouring up and getting ready to leave, got a few shots along the shore before the hide, just a small gathering of us in the boat and the big lens mounted ready to go, - two fishermen just beat us to the sand bank spit where approximately 180 waders were feeding, by the time we got there they had all lifted as a result of the fishermen, some people are just oblivious as to their impact or just plain don’t care. My heart sank – so we toured the perimeter of various mangrove outcrops and fortune shone with these two Pied oyster-catchers, have been trying to get a decent shot of Oystercatchers all year, - perfect example of never knowing how it’s going to go. Trip to Broome Bird Observatory next week!

This was the last trip to the Newcastle Estuary before the waders migrate.

This was the last time I was able to get out in the boat on the Hunter Estuary with Liz and Chris before the waders took off for their northward migration to Siberia and Alaska via the Yellow Sea, always a wonderful experience with so many waders. The Godwits and Pacific Plovers have started to colour up. I also finally got a decent Eastern Curlew shot, it’s taken all year to get that! The movement of the boat and the battle of ISO and speed in camera are ongoing.