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Black-tailed Godwit, Marsh Sandpiper, Purple Swamphen

Black-tailed Godwit, Marsh Sandpiper, Purple Swamphen (Image ID 49796)
Photographed byMichael Hamel-Green on Sun 9th Jan, 2022 and uploaded on Mon 17th Jan, 2022 .
Resolution1800x976
Viewed168
ID49796
CommentThis was my first sighting of relatively uncommon Black-tailed Godwits, observed feeding alongside the more common familiar Marsh Sandpipers and Purple Swamphens at Werribee’s T-Section Lagoon. I had been watching a pair of the Godwits feeding peacefully enough close to some reeds when there was a sudden commotion close by amongst argumentative Swamphens, and the Godwits, Sandpipers and two of the Swamphens took off in a hurry. The quarrel can’t have been too serious because it was not long before the Godwits and Sandpipers were back again near the same bank of reeds. Seeing the Black-tailed Godwits in flight certainly helped confirm their identification, with their wings and underparts displaying the distinctive white rump and wing bar in contrast to the black tail and outer wings. The Godwits are in their non-breeding grey-brown plumage. So why have Black-tailed Godwits become uncommon in recent years? As Datazone Birdlife notes:
“Although this species is widespread and has a large global population, its numbers have declined rapidly in parts of its range owing to changes in agricultural practices. Overall, the global population is estimated to be declining at such a rate that the species qualifies as Near Threatened.”
(http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/black-tailed-godwit-limosa-limosa)
In both Victoria and NSW the species is listed as vulnerable. Most of the 80,000 Black-tailed Godwits who visit Australia over the Spring and Summer months from their Siberian Arctic breeding grounds are found across Northern Australia, so I was privileged to see some of the very few who had travelled the extra mile to visit us down south. Of course, distance seems no obstacle to Godwits. Godwit Bar-tails, cousins of the Black-tails, have been tracked flying 11,000 km from Alaska to New Zealand in only 8 days, averaging 50km per hr (Qld Wader Study Group:
https://waders.org.au/about-waders/shorebird-identification/waders-regularly-seen-in-australia/black-tailed-godwit/). This is particularly impressive for someone like myself, a Ten-Pound Pom, who, last century, took five weeks by boat to travel the 16,893 km from London to Melbourne, averaging 2 km per hour (admittedly with three port visits). No doubt, as I made that journey, there would have been Black-tailed Godwits overhead, rapidly overtaking my ocean liner. Now, of course, we have much faster ways of travelling, and decimating all species, including our own.
EquipmentNikon Z7ii, Nikon 500mm PF f5.6 TC1.4
700mm
ISO 1600
1/2500th f8
Monopod
LocationT-Section Lagoon, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Keywordsin flight, adult, non-breeding plumage/features
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