9th June: Jill and I were picked up at 6.50am by Sebastian from Broome Bird Observatory for our Shorebirds excursion. The road in was in some places covered with water and others in mud, however the Landcruiser handled it with ease. We started off looking from a distance at groups of birds on the shores of Roebuck bay at different points around the bay. The bird scopes made all the difference! We saw Whimbrels, Bar-tales Godwits and Blacktailed Godwits, with Great Knots, Red knots and Ruddy Turnstones at the first spot, with Grey Tailed Tattlets all together. Then we saw a large group of pied stilts together with Red necked Avocets and Caspian terns, lesser crested terns and Gull-billed terns. We saw red capped plover, and at another site the Striated heron, Eastern reef heron , white faced heron and the great egret with a group of pelicans flying in. We also saw white Ibises on the wing , with pied oyster catchers and silver gulls, a female Australian darter, plus from the car diamond dove, peacefully dove, brown goshawk, Brahminy kite, brown falcon, whistling kite, rainbow bee-eaters, Red winged parrot, great bowerbird, brown, singing and white gaped honeyeaters, grey crowned babbler and torresian crow plus the ubiquitous Willie wagtail and the Australian magpie, and finally the eastern osprey.
We returned to the Observatory for Anzac biscuits and a cup of tea before Sebastian drove us home to the caravan park.
Nic and I then went for Nic to have a blood test at Clinipath and to visit Coles for grocery shopping for the next few days. I then wanted a walk along Steelers jetty where at low tide we saw the amazing flame backed fiddler crabs with the males having one large claw.
Jill made delicious salmon patties with corn and parsley and panko breadcrumbs which we had with a salad I made.
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