Lil' The Little Stint ~ Twitch!

       

Lil' and one of her Red-necked Friends.

When Simon Starr found Syd the SIPO, he also inadvertently "discovered," Lil’ the Little Stint as well. Here is what happened.

For those of you who read my blog (and of course I am only talking to those of you who do), I wrote about Syd’s rediscovery in the last blog entry. After the word got out, many Aussie twitchers descended on the sleepy little hamlet of Jam Jerrup to park at the end of Foreshore Road and go out looking for Syd. Sometimes he would be near to the carpark, other times, he would be somewhere near the sandy point of land over a kilometer to the south. That point is referred to as “Stockyard Point.”

It is a very flat area so the tide makes quite a difference in the makeup and size of the “beach.” At high tide the beach toward the point disappears. At low tide, miles of mud flats are exposed. You do NOT want to walk out there. You will sink. And the waders can be scattered far and wide across them. As the tide rises and covers the mud, many of the waders head toward the point, especially the little waders such as Double-banded and Red-capped Plovers, Red-necked Stints and Curlew Sandpipers. They can arrive by the hundreds. Mostly folks were looking for Syd and did not scan closely through the masses of these little waders. But on Sunday, 25 June, Scott Baker and Paul Peake did just that and Scott spotted a Little Stint amongst them! Consulting with Kevin Bartram, the i.d. was confirmed. This was one week after Simon found Syd. The second mega rarity there in a week. Amazing.

Lil’ (her very unofficial name) is in breeding plumage and stands out fairly well, but she can also be easy enough to overlook. On 23 June, Geoff Glare took photos of the flocks of waders at the point and upon later close examination discovered the Little Stint in his photos. Used by permission, here is one of those photos. Lil’ is there. I promise you. See if you can find her.

I was at Stockyard Point again on Saturday the 24th and most probably “saw” Lil’. I really saw, and took some photos of, a beautiful Asian Gull-billed Tern, affinis race. It is a subspecies not yet officially split from Gull-billed Tern. I also saw my pal Syd. On the way back the tide had come in and we had to go inland to get back to the carpark.
   

The little very white tern right in the middle.

When Scott’s amazing discovery hit Facebook it was about 2:15pm on Sunday. I seriously considered making the dash, but I really could not have gotten there in time. It would have been almost dark. So I planned to go over the next morning. Choosing my departure by the tides (low at 8:30am and high at 3:40pm) I left home at the civilized hour of 9am. My friend Carolyn, who also lives in Lara, rode with me. I collected my buddy, James Cornelious and our friend Owen Lismund at a train station on the way. We knew that we did not need to hurry and we rocked up at Jam Jerrup about 11:30am. The tide was still way out. Too far out.

Twitchers waiting on the tide...

A few other birders began arriving and so did rain showers. We waited a bit longer and started to the point about noon. We had a nice walk down the beach (thanks for carrying my scope, James). The tide was still too far out. We could see hundreds of waders about a kilometer over to our left. We waited. And then… little groups of waders started showing up to the sand spit in front of us, and then more, and more.

By about 1:30pm we had a lot of waders to look through, but still more came. The bird was spotted by James Mustafa. Bill Twiss and I both grabbed quick looks through his scope before the flock re-shuffled. It was the Little Stint, but not really a “lifer look.” We all moved to the right to get a better view over a rise in the sand. I was standing by James who was scanning with my scope when I saw a small, russet coloured stint. I got James on it. Seeing it through the scope he proclaimed, “That’s it!” And friends, it was. I had re-found it. Not that that sort of thing is important, but with so many young eyes, and more experienced eyes looking, I felt damn good finding it. Sweet as.

    

       

     

Lifer Selfie with James and Carolyn

This is now Tuesday evening and I have been having a Lifer Day. It is an invention of my own. It is like an all day version of Lifer Pie. I am allowing myself a “happy day.” Truth be told, I am not given to that, even though it might appear that I am. But for a while today, fuck it, I was indeed happy and for that, I am grateful. Birds, you did it for me again. Thanks, Lil’.

PS, I wrote the majority of this blog at my old family dinner table! Older than I am, but it was just too big for the Tiny House... our dear friend and brilliant wood-artist, Julian Beattie, made it smaller for us. I love sitting at this table. I have finally found my spot. I will continue to work on the "book" of the year of travel and birding right here at this table. I am grateful.
Peace. Love. Birds.

Twitch! Syd The SIPO

In early January 2017, as I was sorting the last minute details for our final move to Australia, a New Zealand visitor arrived on the coast of northern New South Wales. He had already visited Victoria, although no one there had noticed he was a Kiwi. The friendly Victorian bird-banders had given him a silver bracelet and a red flag with 1N on it. Many of my friends dashed up (or over, or down) to NSW to see him, but I wasn’t back yet.

He had been banded in August of 2016. Since it was again winter, the very clever Simon Starr (Firetail Birdwatching Tours) went to the place where this visitor had been flagged hoping that he would come back again. And like a Grey Nomad returning to Queensland, he did. Simon found Syd hanging out with the numerous Australian Pied Oystercatchers near a place called Stockyard Point by Jam Jerrup, VIC.

I was birding with some of my dear Aussie Tribe in the beautiful Brisbane Ranges Sunday arvo when I got a message from Simon regarding his discovery (thank you my friend). He had posted the details of his success on Facebook and called to give me the full story. I considered bolting for the site immediately, but it was down on the other side of Melbourne on Westernpoint Bay, so I decided against it. It would be a bit over two hours drive from Lara at the best of times. So I went Monday morning and that was not the best of times.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I do not do big cities (unless I have to). I loathe big cities. Traffic is one of the biggest reasons that I do. Very few things are worth driving through the Big Smoke in the morning, but a South Island Pied Oystercatcher is one of them. A drive that, at normal times, would have taken about two hours took over three hours. I collected my good friend, Oakley Germech (part of the tribe) at a train station near the freeway. Once I had battled my way out of the congestion there, we were gratefully heading away from the traffic flow and toward the twitch.

I had expected to be at Jam Jerrup by 9am. It was close to ten when we finally arrived. We bumped into Dave Stabb, who I had met in January 2011 at the WTP (I have met the best people at the pooh farm! This is not a joke, I really have). I had not seen him since then, but we both remembered each other. He remembered me as Bruce from Virginia (as I was at the time). It was good to see him. We have now exchanged information and will keep in touch.

After checking out a small group of Pied Oystercatchers north of the parking area, we parked and gathered our things to begin searching. Oakley was just ahead of me, starting down on the beach, as a flock of twenty-some oystercatchers flew past toward the area where we had just been looking. I asked Oakley, only partially joking, “Was it in that group?” And he answered seriously, “I think it might have been!”

We headed north up the beach toward where the flock had landed. I said that I thought I had it, but I wasn’t sure. Then in a few moments Dave had his scope on the leg flag of an Oystercatcher. We all read it, “1N!” We had found the SIPO! And we had I.D.ed it first by its flag! Soon Scott Baker, Dan Ashdown, Deb Oliver, David Adam, Mark Hill and others joined us and everyone was taking photos, and rejoicing in the successful twitch. These were lovely moments. I am exceedingly grateful.

Facebook exploded with photos and joyful postings as more people twitched the bird. Kevin Bartram, who saw it later the same day, commented on my post, “You didn’t scare it away?” Later when he had posted about having seen it, I asked him the same question. We joked a bit and he ended up calling the bird, “Syd the SIPO.” I liked it and began to spread it around. I hope it sticks. Here are some photos from the day (the photos of the people and beach are Oakley's).
     

                           

                                 

     

Lifer Selfie with Oakley... Syd the SIPO Successful Twitch!

The following partial song parody is only amusing if you are familiar with Jim Croce’s song, "Don't Mess Around With Jim" . So here you go, sung to the tune of the original…

Don't Mess Around With Syd

Venus Bay got its, “Chuckles”
Darwin’s got its gull.
Stockyard Point got a Pied Oystercatcher
Whose legs are a little small
His bill is long and his wings are strong
But I reckon that he got lost
And when the twitchers all get together at night,
They call Syd the SIPO boss…

A little history of the bird: It was banded on 6 August 2016 there at Stockyard Point, VIC. It was misidentified as an Australian Pied Oystercatcher. It was seen again in that area on 22 August and still misidentified as an APO. Next it showed up at Broadwater Beach in NSW last January where birders finally correctly identified 1N as a South Island Pied Oystercatcher. It was twitched by many (but not by me until this past Monday). It was first seen again in Victoria by Simon on 18 June 2017 and received its 'official' name from Kevin Bartram on 20 June becoming, Syd the SIPO. 

By the way, I had fish and chips and gravy, with a yo-yo cookie dessert as my Lifer Pie treats. I am so grateful.

Peace. Love. Birds.