15 curlews, 12 double-banded plovers and $3.13 in change
- Jewels
- Aug 17, 2017
- 2 min read
We are getting up to our expected number of eastern curlews, which is great. Every year it is heart in mouth as to whether their refueling spots on the migration route will be there and therefore if they'll make it back. They seemed a little slow in arriving this year. We had 9 turn up on 1 August, which is curlew day here, and had to wait until this last week to add 1 more a day. We are now up to 15, we had on average 18 last year.
The double-banded plovers are all dressed up and so ready to go. Surprised they are still here. Could be because we've got some really strong winds at the moment, blowing the wrong way, with gale force expected tomorrow.
Going to be interesting for the beach nesters this weekend. Expecting swells of around 5 metres and we have the king tides. Same thing happened two weeks ago, which is severely limiting the nesting space on the beach. I'm told swell is expected to be southerly so should only be the point of the Spit that cops it, if that expected direction turns out to be the case. Guess it's good to have this happening now rather than when the eggs are down, though may muck up where they had been planning to nest. As the oyks expected nest site is currently directly outside my place will be a disappointment if it gets destroyed.
On my walk around the Spit looking for the birds, found 18 coins, and with the exception of the $2 coin, all fairly corroded. The 2015 and 2014 ones I found surprised me as to how bad a state they were in. Only the $2 is useable but great to find any. One was a real treasure being a 1953 shilling. I've pulled so many coins off the beach and surprised at how many keep turning up each time we get the bad swells. Still looking for something that will beat my 99 year old half penny (this year 100 years old).
Comments