On Tuesday, the warm weather prompted us to pop down to Belongil Creek Estuary to see what birds were around the river mouth.

We started off at the grassy area and walked over the sand dune down to the river mouth. On the way, we spotted a group of Australasian Swamphens feeding in the reeds at the pond we walked past, and White-cheeked Honeyeaters chirped overhead.

We stopped to admire a group of Rainbow Bee-eaters hawking for insects in the sky. These birds have beautiful rainbow bodies just about every colour of you can think of and they get their name from their tendency to catch bees and then wipe them on a branch to remove the sting.

Squabbling Silver gulls littered the beach and Crested terns sat quietly in large flocks.

Red-capped Plovers ran their twinkling run over the sand and a pair of Pied Oystercatchers fed on worms on the estuary edges.

We watched Little Black Cormorants sitting on a dead branch whilst Little Wattlebirds squawked indignantly.

We walked back to the terns and discovered a different tern in the flock. Then we spotted another one. What were they? They had black caps with white fronts and white bodies. The were smaller than Crested Terns but not as small as Little Terns. We eventually realised, after some research, that it was a White-fronted Tern. This species is a rarity in Australia and a lifer for me (lifers are a species you had never seen before until then).

As we walked back to the car, Scaly-breasted Lorikeets flew past, calling, and Blue-faced Honeyeaters fought over a piece of food someone had dropped.

We certainly didn’t come away empty handed!