I reckon every birder in Australia now knows what an Aleutian Tern is and where to find them in our country. But re-wind the tapes only five months and there would have only been a handful of 'world' birders here that had heard of this species let alone seen one. How times change! This species was identified in Australia thanks to the advent of Facebook and digital photography. Its founder: my twitch partner Liam. He was like most of us and had never even heard of an Aleutian Tern.
Boxing Day 2017. It was my only date available for me to go down and try and find these birds. Liam came with me, making my job much easier. It was a very wet day in the area but while we were out it only sprinkled. Nearby Port Macquarie had 73mm at the same time.
We waded through the inlet onto the mudflats then across to where they had been roosting. Whaammoo!! There they were! I snuck up closer and dared pull my camera out in the inclement weather, taking a few ok shots. Liam informed me that over 150 people had already made the effort and twitched the terns.
It was tick 568 for Australia for me and my first since the Grass Owl Liam had found near Port Macquarie in July.
We then spent some time on our walk back to the car searching for other species that had been spotted there since the Great Aleutian Tern Twitch began in early December. Eventually we chanced upon two Greater Sand-Plovers. They were NSW tick 390 for me!
