Do Beach Stone-curlew eat shellfish?
This bird is one of the very few remaining Beach Stone-curlews inhabiting New South Wales beaches. It is based at the mouth of an intermittent coastal lagoon in the Northern Rivers area.
Having navigated its way past two dogs illegally on the beach,this Beach Stone-curlew wandered down to the surf to forage, emerging with this shellfish.
The Beach Stone-curlew then left the surf and headed back to the lagoon.
At the lagoon the Bush Stone-curlew washed this bivalve shellfish several times and seemed to make a half-hearted attempt to crack the shell on a rock.
Not having made any progress on opening the shell, this Beach Stone-curlew headed back to surf some 50 metres away where it abandoned its catch on the beach.
This sort of behaviour has been described as stress related. Certainly this bird has chosen a busy spot to live with people, bicycles, swimmers and illegal dogs to contend with. The whole episode took twelve minutes, the bird looked purposeful in every step, and it successfully navigated around dogs and people on the way.