January 17th: Broad-billed Sandpiper

Thanks to Laurie Knight I managed to get in on a Queensland Wader Study Group (QWSG) wader count at the Port of Brisbane. Brisbane generally has a pretty poor reputation among twitchers for rare shorebirds - it barely rates a mention for the most part. And in publicly accessible areas around Moreton Bay this is probably a fair assessment these days. In days gone by Brisbane had many rarities dropping in - Asian Dowitcher, Long-toed Stint, Ruff, Oriental Plover, Oriental Pratincole, the list goes on. But through development and massive overpopulation the shores of Moreton Bay have become a hub of human activity, and the major shorebird roosts have been lost. Enter Port of Brisbane. In creating extra facilities the Port Authority destroyed Lytton Roost, one of the major wader spots in the bay. Because this occurred, the Port Authority created an offset area by constructing a series of ponds at the north end of Fisherman's Island as part of a "reclamation" project. Until Sunday I had no idea how successful they had been. The site is a mecca for shorebirds and terns; I saw thousands of waders at the small fraction of the site I visited. Grey Plover - a species I had been happy to see one of the other day, were there in number (at least 30, probably more). There were nearly a thousand Bar-tailed Godwit, hundreds of Knot, Sand Plovers, thousands of Stints etc. Little Tern, an endangered species, were there in massive numbers - about a thousand, including a couple of breeding-plumaged birds. And five Broad-billed Sandpipers, a major rarity in this part of the country.

When I worked at the Broome Bird Observatory, Broad-bills were a fairly common sight. By the end of my year at Broome I was fairly comfortable picking a single Broad-bill out of a flock of thousands of stint and sandpipers. But I hadn't seen one since I left Broome in 2005, and I had been concerned that I might have lost my edge when it came to picking them up. Fortunately I needn't have worried, and within five minutes of arriving at the first counting spot I had picked out my first Broad-bill and managed to show the rest of the counters. In all I counted five birds at the site, a good haul for a Brisbane count.

The downside to this is that the Port of Brisbane wader roost is off limits to the public behind a locked gate and heavy security, so even having made this sighting public, twitchers can't just go and find the bird. The only way of getting in (other than working for the Port), is to go in with the QWSG on an official count, which they do once a month on a weekend high tide. It is not arduous work, so it is something I'd encourage all local wader watchers to sign up for. QWSG are mainly looking for regular counters so if they have enough people and you're not a regular you may be turned away. Having visited this site now, I have no problem saying its the best wader spot in southern Queensland by a long margin.

We finished the day with a quick swing by Wynnum to look for Black-tailed Godwit and Collared Kingfisher. The Godwit were present in very small number, and were quite difficult to confirm ID on in the heat haze (the day was a scorcher, clocking in around 35c). The Kingfishers, normally easy at the site, were nowhere to be found! However, with a Broad-billed Sandpiper on the year list, another major rarity for the region joined my list and made 350 species look just that bit more possible.

Total birds to date: 188

Photo 1: Port of Brisbane wader roosts
Photos 2&3: Broad-billed Sandpiper