Twitching Sunshine Coast Kentish Plover & Asian Gull-billed Tern

Kentish Plover

It's been a good week for twitching around the Sunshine Coast. Jane Cooksley made a fantastic discovery late yesterday afternoon when she found a Kentish Plover at Noosa. The bird was on a sandflat in the Noosa River about 1.5km upstream from the river mouth at low tide opposite Noosa River Holiday Park at Munna Point. The Noosa River has had its share of rarities in the past, including Queensland's only Hooded Plover.

Kentish Plover

Jane and her hubby Andrew had been walking the sandflats after disembarking from the family dinghy. Jane and Andrew kindly offered to take Carolyn Scott and I out today in an upgraded family boat! With a king high tide scheduled for 8am and the river sandflats under water, the initial plan was to head out in the afternoon at low tide. However, Andy Jensen spotted the bird early this morning from the river's south bank; it was distantly on a sandbar on what was almost certainly the island that hosts nesting Beach Stone-Curlews.

Kentish Plover

So we opted for an early morning high tide search instead. We landed on the island but no Kentish Plover, just a couple of Red-capped Plovers and loads of terns. Then Rob Morris subsequently saw the bird close to the river mouth (the joys of Facebook instant messaging) so we headed to the north shore and disembarked; it's likely the plover and other birds had been flushed from the island by a visiting kayaker. Carolyn spotted the plover along the high tide line. The bird was associating loosely with a flock of about 20 Red-capped Plovers and was immediately very different in appearance.

Kentish Plover & Red-capped Plover

The north shore can be accessed by road after crossing the Noosa River by vehicular ferry at Tewantin. Non-4WD vehicles can drive to the end of Esplanade/Flying Fish Track/Wilderness Track (called various things on different maps), which runs along the river's north shore off Beach Road. Vehicles can be left in the bush there and you can walk 1km to the river mouth. We saw the bird at high tide. If it moves back into the river as the tide recedes, you can generally walk the sandflats at low tide, although they cover an extensive area. Sometimes low tide is not particularly low, in which case a boat would be needed to access the sandflats. Or you can be satisfied with more distant views from shore.

Successful plover twitch (Andrew & Jane Cooksley, Greg Roberts, Carolyn Scott)

Last Tuesday, Helen Leonard found an (Asian) Gull-billed Tern at the Toorbul high tide shorebird roost. This species, affinis, was split recently from what is now known as the Australian (Gull-billed) Tern macrotarsa. I looked for the bird without success at Toorbul on Wednesday but found an Asian Gull-billed Tern hawking the mudflats of Godwin Beach on a receding tide later during the day.

Asian Gull-billed Tern

Asian Gull-billed Tern

Later in the week, Helen photographed an Asian Gull-billed Tern at the shorebird high tide roost of Kakadu on Bribie Island. It's likely these three sightings are of the same bird. It is possibly the same bird that has been seen several times in recent weeks in the Pine Rivers area a little further south. While not of the same vintage as a Kentish Plover, this is another scarce visitor to these shores from distant lands.

Asian Gull-billed Tern

Asian Gull-billed Tern