February is not normally the most exciting
month to be a birder or ringer - the calls of Siskin are starting to get on
your nerves and you're yearning for Spring to hurry up and bring with it all
the typical migrants, plus a few bonus species. However, my February this year
was rather different and instead of trudging round my local patch, listening to
the seeping of Redwings and chakking of Fieldfare, I was dripping with sweat and
getting familiar with the shorebirds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway in
one of the wader capitals of the worlds: Roebuck Bay, WA.
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| Roebuck Bay by Josie Hewitt |
Yep, WA as in Western Australia! And the reason
for me being 13,800km (8,500miles) away from home? Why, the North West
Australia Wader & Tern Banding (that's ringing to us Brits) Expedition of
course...3 weeks of cannon netting shorebirds, having a laugh with 30 other
birdos (birders) and trying not to get sunburnt/heatstroke...sounds awesome
right? Well that's because it was!
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| The 80 Mile Team |
For the first part of the expedition we were
based at Anna Plains Station, a cattle station located about 250km south of
Broome. Here we were making catches on 80 Mile Beach, a Ramsar Site designated
because of the high numbers of migratory shorebirds that it supports. On a typical catching day at 80 Mile Beach we
were up early (around 4.30am) for breakfast and ready to go for 5.30/6am. The
team would then head to the catching site on the beach, about a 30 minute drive
from the station, where we would set 2 cannon nets, a hide and some shade to
protect the birds and people from the sun during processing. Once everything
was set we'd split into two teams of 3 vehicles, one to head North and one to
head South.
The two teams would then drive about 2km or so
away from the nets in their respective directions, wait for a while until the
birds had come off the plains onto the beach and the tide was up to a suitable
height (about maybe 30m from the catching areas of the nets) and then the two teams
would begin 'twinkling'. This is where the vehicles move along the beach very
slowly in order to push the birds up towards the nets to concentrate them and
increase the chances of making a successful catch.
Whilst 'twinkling' the vehicles can communicate
with each other via radios and can stop if the birds are looking nervous or
flighty. There is, however, nothing you can do about birds of prey! The
numerous raptors did flush a lot of birds but this didn't bother us too much,
and we got some super views of the raptors themselves, as well as the thousands
of shorebirds that they flushed! It wasn't just the raptors that made the
shorebirds uneasy though, large birds such as the Lesser Frigatebirds and
Australian Pelicans had a similar effect!
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| White-bellied Sea Eagle by Josie Hewitt |
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| Lesser Frigatebird by Josie Hewitt |
For the whole expedition we managed to have a
100% success rate, catching birds every time we fired the nets, which is pretty
impressive considering all the variables involved! At 80 Mile Beach we were
catching in areas with higher densities of birds rather than targeting specific
species (like at Roebuck Bay, but I will get onto that in a minute). One of our
biggest catches was actually on our very first catching day with 535 birds of 7
species processed. This included 27 re-traps with 3 from China and 1 from Japan
which just shows how important ringing and ring re-sighting data is!
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| Terek Sandpiper by Josie Hewitt |
We spent 11 days at Anna Plains with 9 catching
days. My favourite species that I saw at 80 Mile Beach were Terek Sandpiper,
Broad-billed Sandpiper and Little Curlew because they all undertake long
migrations between their breeding and wintering sites and, as with lots of
migratory birds, face numerous threats along the way. Seeing an estimated
300,000 Oriental Pratincoles on the beach at once was certainly an experience I'll
never forget. Take a look for yourself (every black spec is a
Pratincole...yeah, really!):
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| Oriental Pratincoles by Josie Hewitt |
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| More Oriental Pratincoles by Josie Hewitt |
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| Broad-billed Sandpiper by Josie Hewitt |
On the 18th February we said our farewells to
the folks at the station and made the journey back north to Broome. Our base
for the remainder of the expedition was the lovely Broome Bird Observatory
(BBO). We were made to feel very welcome by the Wardens and Assistant Wardens
and after sorting all the gear out after our journey from Anna Plains, we had
that afternoon and the next day off to go birding, shopping or whatever. The
20th February was the first of 8 catching days at Broome and for this we were
setting our nets on the shores of the stunning Roebuck Bay.
At Roebuck Bay the catching was much more a case
of quality over quantity compared with 80 Mile Beach and so we targeted some
pretty special species, such as Grey Plover, Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwit
and Far Eastern Curlew! Despite the more targeted catching, we still managed to
keep up our 100% catching rate which was brilliant.
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| Eastern Curlew by Josie Hewitt |
Catching at Roebuck Bay was slightly different
to 80 Mile Beach because of the tides and the different geography of the area.
We were still up early most mornings to get the net and shade set up, but
unlike 80 Mile we didn't usually build a hide, nor did we all stay at the site
between setting & catching. Instead we'd finish setting by about 8am and
would head back to the Observatory for a second breakfast and early lunch.
People often went for a quick bit of birding in this time, or just helped out
around the place with the cooking & data entry or they just chilled for a
bit before heading back out around 10am (though this depended on the tides).
Arriving back at the catching site, we'd sit in
the brush waiting for the birds and tide to come in. After about 2 hours it
would be near firing time and everyone would start to get ready (have some
water, sweets for a sugar rush, etc) and the adrenaline would start to kick in!
The countdown would come over the radio from the guys in the hide and once we'd
heard the net fire, everyone would sprint down to the net as fast as they
could. One or two people were designated box carriers so there was something to
put the birds in once they'd been extracted from the net.
The majority of the team then helped to make
sure the net and birds were out of danger from the incoming tide, before
extraction began. Once the carrying boxes were full ('full' meaning different
numbers depending upon which species were in each box) they were carried to the
shade and then put into keeping cages which were nice and cool to prevent the
birds from getting heat stressed. Once all the birds were extracted from the
net and safely in the keeping cages, the cannon net gear was sorted out and
moved to a safe spot on the beach.
The team was then split into smaller processing
teams and assigned a species to work on. Different measurements were taken for
different species. Once all the birds were processed, we packed all the gear
back into the vehicles and trailers ready for the next day. Usually, the rest
of the day was spent birding at the Broome Sewage Works (we birders go to all
the best places eh!), out on the Plains or around the Observatory itself.
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| Yellow Chat by Josie Hewitt |
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| Crested Pigeon by Josie Hewitt |
While we were at BBO we were also able to put up
some mist nets around the water baths where the birds come down to drink and
bathe. These proved very successful and we caught quite a variety of species,
including Brown Honeyeater, Rufous-throated Honeyeater, Double-barred Finch,
Rainbow Bee-eater, Peaceful Dove and Little Friarbird. It was great to be able
to get experience of banding some of the bush birds in addition to all the
waders we were cannon netting!
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| Rainbow Bee-eater by Josie Hewitt |
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| Bar-shouldered Dove by Josie Hewitt |
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| Greater Sand Plover by Josie Hewitt |
All in all it was a super expedition and one
that I would highly recommend. If finances and time allow, I fully intend to
return next year for more sun, sea and shorebirds!!
