Red Knots in flight

Bar-tailed Godwit flock

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

Lake Wollumboola has also provided temporary homes for rare bird species that would usually migrate from Canada to South America. In summers of 2014-15 the White-rumped Sandpiper and in 2015-16 the Hudsonian Godwit enthralled bird observers from all over Australia.

Double-banded Plover

Bar-tailed Godwit. (T)

The migratory Bar-tailed Godwit is an amazing species. They gather in large flocks in the lake shallows, probing with their long pink bills to find small crustaceans and worms, or roost on mudflats while they fatten up for their journey north to breed. One female was recorded as making an eight-day non-stop migration flight from Alaska to New Zealand! Younger birds spend their first two years along Australia’s south east coast, including at Lake Wollumboola before migrating north.

Black-tailed Godwit (T)

Eastern Curlew (T)

Terek Sandpiper (T)

Lesser Sand Plover (T)

Curlew Sandpiper (T)

Red-necked Stints

The Red-necked Stints are the smallest of the migratory birds, yet flocks of these tiny birds fly huge distances from Siberia to Australia and return. See them snoozing on the sand bar during summer and frantically feeding along the Lake shore, often with Red-capped Plovers.