Night time ringing

At an undisclosed site somewhere in the vacinity of Broome, we decided to try to catch the snipe that have been lurking between there and the sewage works !

A motly crew gathered to put nets up around a small sludgy pool and waited for dusk.




In the mean time the Masked lapwings threw themselves in the nets depsite being clear as day, perhaps they have bad eye sight ??!!



However as night fell, a Little curlew; one of the few left in Broome as ther rest have headed out to the plains after the rains, was taken out of a net and duly fitted with a metal band and an engraved yellow flag, signifying that it was part of the NW Australian Wader study group project.

The biggest surprise of the night went to the Buff Breasted Rail, three of which were dazzled and caught a hand net. No one had any idea that they occurred there and so it was a nice surprise ! especially as they are such beautiful birds and not much data has been collected on them for the Kimberley area.

Ah, one of the species we were trying to ring. There are potentially three species of snipe that can occur in Oz all of which are extremely difficult to identify unless you have them in the hand or have close detailed views. This snipe turned out to be Swinhoe's Snipe, the commonest of the three and most likely to occur. The other two are Pin-tailed and Latham's snipe neither of which we caught ! All three are migrants to Australia and will return to Arctic/ Boreal Russia / East Japanese breeding grounds. the tail pattern is diagnostic between the species.







A nice surpise also was a Pectoral Sandpiper which had been seen a few days earlier as again, not many have been ringed in the NW Australia.

The photo below shows the distinctly mottled breast which cuts off so distinctly giving way to the white belly and underparts.

I think the biggest surprise was supplied by this small wader, a Little Stint ! Given away by an odd moult taking pace in the primaries, which Red-necked Stint shouldn't be doing at that time of year. Also the 1st primary pattern was good for Little stint.