Little Stint, Albany Pelagic and the WA 400 Club

Last weekend represented a pretty full on and hectic birding and wildlife adventure. Within three days we twitched hard for a Little Stint, drove to Albany and back (850 km round trip) and did two boat trips out to the edge of the continental shelf and back. I also managed to scrape in to an exclusive club, the WA 400 club!

Day 1 saw an early departure from my house in Perth. The reason for an early departure was that this wasn't a lazy drive down to Albany to gear up for the pelagic, nope, we had a hard core twitch for a Little Stint lined up. Somewhat conveniently, a Little Stint had recently been reported in Denmark (approximately 50 km west of Albany) by a local birder. Now Little Stint is a tricky little shorebird, they are a migratory species, which usually don't occur in Australia. Well they may be more common then we think in Australia, we don't really know, as in non-breeding plumage, this species is very difficult to separate from the far more common Red-necked Stint. So you can imagine our excitement when photos came through, showing an individual in full breeding plumage, eliminating any doubt that this bird was in no uncertainty a Little Stint. The opportunity to tick a Little Stint with no question of the ID is way too good to pass up. Encouragingly, another twitcher made the journey from Perth just three days and earlier and had successfully got the Little Stint, so our confidence was high!

The breeding plumage Little Stint in all its glory. Photos as posted on Facebook by the original finder, Steve Elson. The top photo shows it in association with non-breeding plumage Red-necked Stint's, apart from the plumage, you see a slightly finer, longer and droopy bill, more rounded body structure and longer tibia-tarsus (upper leg)

Essential twitching road trip items

Rather then jump between stories, I'm just going to summarise our Little Stint search efforts here. We ended up putting in three really solid searches for the Little Stint, all to no avail. We first arrived at the site on Wilson Inlet approximately 11:30 am, which we proceeded to search the length of the beach (approximately 4 km in length). By 2:30 pm, with no sign of the Stint, we thought we would try the river mouth. Red-necked Stints were present, but again no hints of a Little Stint. We returned back to the original site which corresponded with the same tide height of when the bird was previously seen. Immediately it was clear there were more birds present, so our optimism lifted, unfortunately we were again unsuccessful.

We returned the following day, after a long day out on the boat. Again, there were plenty of shorebirds present, so we were hopeful. Not long after arriving we had some excitement with Graffy spotting a Ruff. This migratory species is regular to Australia, but only in very small numbers so is always exciting to see. The Ruff was roosting with some Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, which after a short time viewing flushed from their roost site, and flew off.

This action then must have flushed a Stint off the shoreline which we hadn't spotted previously in to the water, Stu was on to it and the call went up, "I've got a Stint in breeding plumage!". The inevitable scramble and urgency to see the bird then followed. Its such a funny moment, when someone is on to a mega bird, the intensity of others to get on to it is hilarious, if it wasn't so serious! Anyway, after initially spotting it, Stu had lost the bird. But while scanning the Stints I was on to it. There was confusion for s short period as the bird had moved from where Stu initially spotted it. After Graffy abruptly clarified where the location of the bird was (politeness goes out the window when a rarity lifer is on offer, this is a given), we all got our scopes on the the breeding plumage Stint.

The elation was immediate, we gasped, we cooed, we gloated, we fist pumped! We started looking closer at the finer details of this special, and started asking some questions. Why are the tertial feathers fringed rufous.... why is the primary wing projection so short.... and why are those legs so yellow? Yellow legs is diagnostically bad for Little Stint. We tried to dismiss the light legs as mud, i think we even tried Graffy's colour blindness as an excuse. But it suddenly became clear, we weren't looking at the breeding plumage Little Stint, we were in fact looking at a Breeding Plumage Long-toed Stint!!! The chances of encountering this relatively uncommon freshwater species in full breeding plumage at the same site were exceedingly low, but alas thats the way this twitch turned out, with a dip. It certainly wasn't through lack of effort. We had three big efforts, with six people, over about eight hours, thats about 48 hours of person search hours!

So we ended up dipping on Little Stint. It's not the end of the world, there will be more Little Stints to twitch in WA, but this was a great opportunity. But it was great to look hard at shorebirds, and Wilson Inlet is an awesome spot, and a breeding Long-toed Stint was a first for most of us, and was a stunning little bird. 

Graffy, Dan and Plaxy searching for the Little Stint at Wilson Inlet, Denmark

Part of our search encompassed a river crossing. The south west received some very unseasonal heavy summer rainfall just days before our arrival. We speculated that following this heavy rainfall and change in water levels, the Little Stint may have moved on.

We found plenty of Red-necked Stints, a close relative of the Little Stint and the common Stint in Australia.

Where is the Stint?!

A Ruff added excitement to the twitch, It can be seen in this photo front and centre with the roosting Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. It is approximately one third larger, has a pale dull patterned head and pale pinkish legs, to separate it from the Sharpies.

Our elation upon finding a Stint in breeding plumage turned to despair when we realised it was a Long-toed Stint, not our heavily sought after Little Stint!

Despite our disappointment, we were still excited to see this species in full breeding plumage, rarely seen in Australia. 

Whilst the Little Stint dip was disappointing, the pelagic was the main aim of the game. There's a saying within the birding fraternity that "real birders are sea birders". Sea birds can be really tricky to identify, as the diagnostic features of a bird are often small and non-descript, which is amplified by trying to look at the bird through binoculars on a rocking, swaying boat, with the bird often at distance and zooming past the boat, disappearing behind the crests of waves etc. So it can be a challenge, which is certainly one of the attractions. I'm a complete pelagic rookie, with this trip being my first ever dedicated pelagic bird boat trip. I've been unlucky with previous trips I've been booked on being cancelled and clashes with work trips. So I was really excited to finally be heading out to the blue yonder!

The start of the day consisted of gathering at the boat ramp at Emu Point at 5:30 am. Eighteen bright eyed and optimistic birders gathered with binoculars strung around necks and DLSR cameras with large lenses over shoulders. Pleasantries were exchanged between pelagic veterans, whilst rookies such as myself stood around, not really sure what to do. Graffy is the organiser (and does a great job just quietly), so he summoned the troops and with that we made our way on to the charter boat and we were heading out of the harbour by 6 am.

The pelagic birding concept is pretty simple. You motor out in a large fishing charter boat past the edge of the continental shelf. Off Albany, thats about 50 km offshore and between 500-1,000 meters deep. Once you stop, you deploy your chum which hopefully the birds smell and come in to the boat for a free feed and a sticky beak. SO two main methods to see the birds, either randomly intercept them whilst motoring out, or attracting to the boat once drifting. The reason to head out to the shelf is that this is where nutrient rich cold water upwellings occur as it hits the shelf edge and forces cold water (and food) towards the surface. So it is generally an area of high sea bird activity.

A lovely sunrise the on the first pelagic morning in the boat harbour

Gathering sea birders with pelagic veteran Stu Ford front and centre. Cameras at the ready!

The view from the back of the boat, out of the entrance of the sound in to the southern ocean

Pelagic rookie sporting poor pelagic attire in boardshorts, thankfully the weather was fine and sunny justifying my decision.

Our chum was attentively put together according to strict ratios. A fine blend of burley pellets, tuna oil, shark liver, suet (fat from animal internal organs), popcorn and a pinch of love ;)

Tube-nose species are the main targets, these species are the true pelagic sea birds; Albatross, Petrels, Shearwaters, Storm-petrels etc. Unfortunately, overall the weekend was fairly quite, with nine tubenose species recorded on the Saturday, and just six on the Sunday which is an all time low record off Albany. It was somewhat of an experimental trip, having never completed a February pelagic trip off the south coast. The species composition varies significantly according to the time of the year, so it was a big unknown (and still is) what can be recorded this time of year. 

Heading out of King George Sound we encountered Crested Terns, Australasian Gannets and a few Arctic Jaegers (Skua type birds). Nige also spotted a Little Penguin on the Sunday. Our first Flesh-footed Shearwaters, by far the most common tube-nose species encountered, started to follow at the back of the boat. As you exit the sound and hit the actual ocean, you pass an area of increased bird activity, which results in a heightened anticipation on the boat. We recorded Hutton's Shearwater and Wedge-tailed Shearwater (a first off of Albany) in this area on the first day. There's then a long gap in activity until you hit the edge of the shelf, a time period of approximately 90 minutes.

On the way out on the first day a couple of distant Long-tailed Jaegers were spotted flying off in to the distance. This species was a lifer for me but the views were no good so couldn't count that. Thankfully, upon stopping out at the shelf I spotted a bird flying towards the front of the boat which flew over the op and out the back, giving the half decent views I needed to tick a Long-tailed Jaeger. This lifer also brought the number of birds I had seen to 399 in WA. Shortly after starting our first drift, the call went up for Great-winged Petrel. This species looks similar to the common Fleshies, except for a smaller and all dark bill. Another lifer for me and bird number 400 for me in WA (and 499 in Australia). Although there's nothing too hard about seeing 400 birds (WA birding twitcher legend Frank O'Conner is on 501...), it's a relatively small club as you need to have travelled to most parts of the state, and seen most of the birds in those areas as well. So I'm very happy join the WA 400 club!

I was hopeful of getting a Wandering Albatross during the weekend, but we dipped on this iconic species. We ended up with just the two Albatross species, Indian Yellow-nosed and Shy, impressive birds none the less. Our complete species list for the two trips is below. Even though the boat trips were a bit quite bird species wise, I enjoyed them a lot, and learnt heaps from some really experienced and knowledgeable birders. Its always great being out on a boat, my fishing legs held me in good stead and I didn't get crook, but can't say the same for all that were on board haha. I'm looking forward to my next pelagic adventure :)

A pod of Common Dolphins put on a great display jumping out the water and surfing the wake of the boat on the way back in. 

The call went up for "Shark"! But I knew instantly it didn't look right and countered with "No, Sunfish"! I've never seen one in the flesh before so was really excited to watch this awkward looking fish flap around in the water with its giant fins.

A Flesh-footed Shearwater in flight. This is the most common tube-nose species off the south coast, diagnosed from other shearwater species by its black tipped pinkish bill. This photo turned out much better then i thought it would.

Hutton's Shearwater. These species are so fast through the air, absolutely hooking past the boat. Unfortunately we didn;t see any Little Shearwater which are faster again. What a long bill these guys have.

An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross sitting at the back of the boat after a bit of chumming action.

A Shy Albatross that came and did some laps around the boat on one of our drifts.

A White-faced Storm-petrel. Everyone loves "Stormies", they are tiny little birds that look a little out of place out on the massive ocean. Affectionately known as "Jesus Birds", for their habit of fluttering just on the surface of the water, looking like they are walking on water.

The scene out off the continental shelf on a pelagic drift. Hundreds of  Fleshies and a few Yellow-nosed Albs.

Sea Bird Species List:
Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross
Shy Albatross
Flesh-footed Shearwater
Hutton's Shearwater
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Short-tailed Shearwater (this would have been a lifer for me but I had very poor views so this one is left un-ticked for now)
White-faced Storm-petrel
Wilson's Storm-petrel
Great-winged Petrel
Arctic Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
Crested Tern
Bridled Tern
Australasian Gannet