Bar-tailed Godwits at Hen and Chicken Bay – 27 March 2024

In the afternoon, I travelled back to Hen and Chicken Bay – and this time I had much better success photographing the Bar-tailed Godwits in their pre-migratory feeding.

When I arrived, the first bird I spotted was this Little Egret –

It was shadowing a White-faced Heron –

Then a little further along the exposed mudflats I spotted some Bar-tailed Godwits.

The orange coloured ones are showing their breeding plumage.

They seem to be eating small worms that live in the sand.

And a White-faced Heron was around –

There must have been at least 50 Bar-tailed Godwits along the mudflats here.

There were also some Pied Stilts –

Back to the Bar-tailed Godwits –

And another Pied Stilt –

The Bar-tailed Godwits must be very vulnerable when feeding like this –

But there is safety in numbers. With so many birds there, there are many that can alert the others.

And now a diversion. A Silver Gull has found some food. But another Silver Gull wants it.

More Silver Gulls join in –

I then try to get some flight photos of the Godwits.

And another Pied Stilt flies past with a worm –

But the Godwits seem to be finding plenty of food –

It was well worth the second visit to this Bay.