Spring bird migrations into the Royal

We are well into spring as I write this and migrant birds have been arriving daily over the last few weeks. First were the shorebirds coming from the Arctic….. then within days you could hear the cackle of the Channel-billed Cuckoos…you looked up and there they were  a couple flying fast from New Guinea.

The shorebirds migrate incredible distances, some fly non stop for more than 11,000 kilometres. Before takeoff they feed themselves into immense balls of fat to sustain them on their long flight. Then when they sense the weather conditions are favourable they launch themselves on these epic journeys. The Eastern Curlews captured in the photo above, which was taken on the flats in Port Hacking, would have flown from Eastern Siberia. Look how skinny the  bird on the right is…..a new arrival after perhaps ten days of non stop flying……….its a photo that prompts you to write a caption.

Those early migrants have been followed by Koels, Figbirds, Leaden Flycatchers, Rufous Whistlers, Sacred Kingfishers, Dollarbirds, Lathams Snipe, Bar-tailed Godwits and many more. Migrants from across the globe and across Australia.

Click on Read More to see them  and read their stories.