When I go out to Inskip Point it is to see birds, but for most people Inskip Point is the gateway to the southern part of Fraser Island. There are numerous signs along the road to warn of driving conditions and restrictions before tourists even start over to the island. These two signs caught my eye the other morning. This one - warning of crocodiles - has been up since a big crocodile was sighted somewhere on the western side of the island a couple of years ago. Saltwater crocodiles are top predators and people are definitely part of their food chain! When I first came here about 10 years ago there were no known crocodiles this far south. However, the sighting of one on Fraser Island and two that are seen every now and again in the Mary River just north of here, have definitely changed my attitude to wading happily through any deeper water! I don't remember seeing this sign warning about dingoes - but maybe I just haven't been looking! There have been a number of recent warnings about how aggressive dingoes can be when they have young ones. There are definitely a lot of dingoes on the Island but I also occasionally see them around here as well. Lots of people - especially tourists! - forget the dingoes are wild animals and also predators! There was a lot of fog around when I first got out to Inskip Point the other morning. West across the sand island was very dark but there were a lot of birds visible out there - mainly pelicans and cormorants from what I could see. Looking east the sun was shining through a thick bank of fog and creating an interesting lighting effect. The early morning sunlight gave a yellow tint to both the birds and the sand. It also enhanced the color on the front of the Curlew Sandpiper. That red color is the remnant of the bright red breeding colors. The other birds are Double-banded Plovers - some with breeding colors and some without. I posted photos of these last week. As soon as I saw the color on the Curlew Sandpiper I wanted to get better photos of these birds. I saw at least 3 birds with this color on them. However, there was constant movement among these little birds and the ones I wanted to photograph seemed to be constantly hidden behind another bird or else turned away from me. This photo caught a Curlew Sandpiper on the left (with what looks like an orange flag on its leg!) and a Terek Sandpiper on the right. I needed other photos of both these birds! The Terek Sandpiper surprised me as I have not previously seen one at Inskip. The Terek Sandpiper has an upturned bill and orange/yellow legs. Usually I see them roosting in mangrove trees - often with Grey-tailed Tattlers. They also look bigger roosting in the trees than this one did walking around with these smaller birds! I also wanted a better photo of the Curlew Sandpiper with the flag on its leg. I moved only very slowly and the birds settled down. In this photo the Curlew Sandpiper has its head tucked down sleeping and the Double-banded Plover on the right is sleepily blinking at me. Right after this the young dog which I told about in my previous blog post came romping along the sand and everything flew up! (Stewart mentioned some time ago that he helps to flag birds down in Victoria. I think the Victorian flag color is orange - so is this one of "your" birds Stewart? And yes, I have reported this sighting through the proper channels!) For more scenes from around the world visit Our World Tuesday
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