HUDSONIAN GODWIT

Photographed at Lake Wollumboula, NSW December 2015

741                  HUDSONIAN GODWIT            Limosa haemastica

Australia            (584)

Found in tidal mudflats and estuaries; waterways in mangroves; salt marshes, freshwater wetlands. 37-42 cm. Range: breeds Alaska to Hudson Bay, Canada; winters in far s. S. America; some reach Nz almost annually. In Aust. summer vagrant to coastal mudflats (NSW, Vic, Tas, SA)

PARADISE SHELDUCK

Photographed at Lake Wollumboula, NSW December 2015

740             PARADISE SHELDUCK              Tadorna variegata

Australia          (583)

The Paradise Shelduck is endemic to New Zealand and this one seen at Lake Wollumboula (near Nowra) NSW is the first record of one appearing in Australia. They are prize game birds and were hunted in New Zealand outside the breeding season, when the birds can not fly.

SOOTY OWL

Photographed at Bunyip State Forrest, Victoria December 2015

739              SOOTY OWL           Tyto tenebricosa

Australia          (582)

Found in tall, wet forrest in sheltered e. and se.-facing mountain gullies, with dense understory layer. 38-50 cm, female larger. Range: coastal e. Australia: mostly on and e. of Divide from Dandenong Ras., e. of MelbourneKinglake NP (Vic), to Connondale Ra. (se Q.). Until recently this and the Lesser Sooty were amongst our lesser known birds.

SONG THRUSH

Photographed at West Sunshine, Victoria December 2015

738          SONG THRUSH           Turdus philomelos

Australia          (581)

Also known as English Thrush. 23 cm. Found in parks, gardens, woodlands, forrest, thickets. Range: native to Europe, n. Africa, w. Asia; introduced to Melbourne 1860s; Patchy Dandenong Ras.-Mt Macedon, Melbourne and suburbs, Mornington Pen; Geelong-Lorne. Local. Also introduced Lord Howe and Norfolk Is., NZ.

Taken Norfolk Island January 2016

ASIATIC GULL-BILLED TERN

Photographed at Stockyard Point, Victoria December 2015

737           ASIATIC GULL-BILLED TERN            Sterna affinis

Australia           (580)

This is currently a sub-species of the Gull-billed Tern. It is a vagrant to Australia, being a non-breeding summer migrant (Sept.-April) from Asia to n and e coast, s. to Hunter R. (NSW). It is smaller, greyer, short-legged; usually in non-breeding plumage.

COX'S SANDPIPER

Photographed at Werribee treatment Plant, Victoria December 2015

736              COX'S SANDPIPER           calidris paramelanotos

Australia          (579)

Only described in the last twenty years. It is a natural hybrid between Curlew Sandpiper and Pectoral Sandpiper. c. 19 cm. Found on the muddy edges of wetlands, fresh, brackish and saline, coastal and inland; sewerage ponds, salt farms, tidal mudflats. Summer migrant to mostly se. Just., from unknown breeding grounds, possibly e. Siberia. Specimens from SA, sight records from Q., Vic., NSW, Tas., and WA.

(at the rear)

COMMON SKYLARK

Photographed at the Werribee Treatment Plant, Victoria December 2015

735           COMMON SKYLARK          Alauda arvensis

Australia        (578)

Also known as the English Skylark. 17-19 cm. Found in cultivated grassland/crops; wastelands, coastal dunes. Range: se Aust.: introduced from Britain in 1850s; ranges from Yorke Pen. (SA) to Hunter Valley (NSW), inland to c. Macquarie Marshes. Common Tas., Vic., s SA, NSW Riverina. Nomadic, part-migratory.

WHITE-HEADED PETREL

Photographed on Port Fairy Pelagic trip, December 2015

734              WHITE-HEADED PETREL         Pterodroma lessonii

Australia        (577)

40-46 cm; wingspan c. 1 m. Breeds Crozets and kergulen Is. (s. Indian Ocean); Auckland, Antipodes and Macquarie Is. (NZ region). Wide circumpolar dispersal n to c. 30 degrees S. Uncommon winter visitor to offshore waters of s. Aust, n to c. NW Cape (WA) and se Q. Migratory and dispersive.

FAIRY PRION

Photographed on the Port Fairy Pelagic trip, December 2015

733                FAIRY PRION           Pachyptila turtur

Australia           (576)

The smallest of the prions, 23-28 cm; wingspan c. 56 cm. Breeds in coastal NZ and many islands; also s. Indian and s. Atlantic Oceans. Breeds islands around Tasmania; in Bass Strait off Wilson's Prom., w. to Lady Julia Percy Island and Lawrence Rocks (w. Vic). Common offshore se Aust. w. to Eyre Pen. (SA) and n. to c. Q. where less common,; rarest in s. WA. Present through Bass Strait and Tas. most months, with a winter peak. Gales drive many ashore.

Photographed on Kiama Pelagic, June 2016