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.