Where are all the Oysters?

Pied Oystercatcher, Haematopus longirostris

I took Bonnie for a walk this afternoon, to a different part of the river. We walked down beside the freeway to where the river reaches it's widest point, known as Melville Water. Along here are short stretches of beach and little rocky points where I came across this pied oystercatcher.

It was such a windy dismal day and hard to get the settings right. I'm just happy his red eye ring shows! Can be so difficult to show off all the features of dark coloured birds on cloudy days. I like his pose in this shot. He was running all over the rocks vocalizing regularly. Maybe complaining at the lack of oysters... or maybe complaining at a straining Bonnie on the end of her lead!

I was also quite chuffed to come across a small flock of four red necked stints on one of the patches of beach! This is a new bird for me! The little 30g stints are migratory, breeding in north-eastern Siberia and northern and western Alaska. It follows the the East Asian-Australasian Flyway to spend the southern summer months in Australia. It is found widely in Australia, except in the arid inland. They arrive in Australia from late August to September and leave from early March to mid-April.