SIPO

It's not too often that a rare vagrant turns up in the middle of the city but this week that's exactly what happened. A South Island Pied Oystercatcher, all the way from New Zealand, decided to spend a bit of time on a small island in the middle of Sydney Harbour. Needless to say I hot-footed it down to the tourist ferry and headed out onto the water. After everyone else got off at Taronga zoo, four of us carried on to Shark Island.

Shark Island

Shark Island is only 100 m long and so I've no idea why the ferry actually goes there but I'm glad it does as, after a short search, we found the SIPO #453 sheltering from the wind behind a rock. It then moved down onto a little beach giving us great views before the next ferry turned up and I was able to get in to work before anyone was the wiser.

South Island Pied Oystercatcher

We're off to Tasmania on Sunday to watch Scotland get thrashed in the cricket world cup but there are also 12 endemic birds to find which will certainly take the sting out of defeat!