Lancelin

I made the rather foolish decision to visit the beach at Lancelin on Australia Day. Although it doesn't look busy from the photo above, there was a good number of people about. Some were walking, some exercising dogs and some driving on the beach. There was a good amount of sea grass on the edge of the water as you approach the beach and I think that was very beneficial for the birds. Not even the dogs seemed to want to venture on to it - it was quite smelly. There were lots of gulls and terns around but picking through the melee, I found some young Pacific Gulls, a single godwit and quite a few oystercatchers. 

There were lots of Great Crested Tern here, in various stages of breeding and juvenile plumage. I watched them dive for fish in the shallow water. This area is protected by a reef running between the small islands and it meant that although the it was quite windy, the waters were not too choppy. One poor tern was chased by a number of other terns and gulls trying to steal its catch and all it wanted to do was feed it to the poor hungry chick on the beach! 

On the small, rocky islets offshore were numbers of Bridled Tern who occasionally flew past but never landed on the beach. 

One of the bravest birds here was also the smallest. While the bigger birds took shelter from the human and canine activity on the beach, the tiny Red-capped Plover tried to feed in the shallows of the open beach. These plucky little birds were frequently disrupted by the dogs and it made me want to reassure them that everybody would be gone in 24 hours. 

You can walk a decent way north and south from the main entrance to the beach and on a quieter day, who knows what might turn up.