Triple-ticking!

In a nice piece of symmetry it appears that my 2015 ticking will both start and finish at Culburra Beach near Nowra. Back in January I made the three hour drive south to pick up a White-rumped Sandpiper and a couple of days ago I made the trip again to twitch another American vagrant at exactly the same spot on the shore of Lake Wollumboola. 

A dozen twitchers were already there when I turned up but the Hudsonian Godwit that we'd all come to see had not been located. There were many Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits roosting at the water's edge and also out in the centre of the shallow lake but the 'Hudwit' could not be singled out. After an hour and a half of searching, a Peregrine Falcon passed overhead which flushed everything into the air. The separate godwit flocks consolidated on the shoreline a bit further south and, shortly after we'd all hiked down there, one of the birds raised it's wings to reveal the characteristic black underwing of the Hudsonian Godwit #471. The flock was subsequently flushed a couple more times by a Peregrine Falcon and then a Swamp Harrier which gave us great views of the bird in flight where it clearly stood out from it's cousins. As a bonus I also picked up a couple of reasonably common locals that have somehow evaded me up until now. Red Knot #470 and White-winged Black Tern #472 are now safely on the list.