A bright, early-morning sun dazzled the eyes as it bounced off a carpet of mud at Goulds Lagoon, Austins Ferry.
I blinked and strained to focus my eyes. Against the reflected harsh light I could see tiny shapes moving, scurrying across the mud like crabs on a beach.
Just silhouettes. All the same these tiny birds revealed themselves in shape and form as waders.
It took some time for this small flock of birds to move out of the direct path of the sun so I could see the colour of their plumage and other field marks that identify each species as distinct. They were black-fronted dotterels with red-eye ring, white eye-stripe, black V-shape on a grey breast, and black-tipped red bill.
These tiny waders inhabit freshwater mudflats and marshes instead of the marine coastal environment preferred by much of their clan.
Many of the shorebirds – especially the biggest like curlews and godwits – have long legs and beaks, to probe mud and sand for shrimps and worms. The dotterels, which are grouped in a family of shorebirds which includes plovers and lapwings, are easily identified by their short, stubby beaks used for snapping up crabs and or prising other invertebrates from the mud.
The bigger migratory waders are often hard to locate in the vast wetlands they usually call home but, like the marine creatures that form their prey, the dotterels proved easy pickings for the lazy birdwatcher. On this fine autumnal day, I chose to explore a series of meres and coves along the Derwent instead of thrashing through soggy marshland at recognised haunts of waders around Orielton Lagoon and the outer reaches of Lauderdale.
The dotterels moved across the mud in short bursts, their plump, rounded bodies on spindly legs which seemed too frail to support them, dodging stalks of reeds as they went. Pausing to peck here, and peck there, the party of five birds covered a 50-metres expanse of mud in just a few minutes, before winging their way on fluttering flight to another location out of sight.
The waders seen in Australia number about 40 species, many of them migratory, making journeys from the far south of the planet to the far north, some nesting within the Arctic Circle. One wader, a bar-tailed godwit, was recorded in 2020 flying a staggering 13,558 kilometres non-stop from Alaka to Tasmania.
The few that breed in Tasmania are relatively secure in terms of conservation but most of the migratory species are in peril of extinction because of development and hunting along their migration route through East Asia.
Two species that visit Tasmania, the eastern curlew, and the curlew sandpiper have in recent years been classified as critically endangered.
I banished thoughts of the wider plight of waders far from my thoughts on his glorious autumnal day, as I watched the dotterels probing and poking the muddy pool.