Plover CAU over-winters in South Australia.

CAU is now hanging out at Bald Hill along with 4 other Grey Plovers who are in non-breeding plumage and so presumably sub-adult. CAU could potentially be a younger bird (now in it’s 3rd year), but it could equally be an adult that decided not to migrate all the way north. It does occasionally happen to adult shorebirds – presumably reflecting poor condition at migration time, although nobody knows for sure.

Whilst satellite transmitter fixes are of varying levels of accuracy, with the best accuracy being less then 250 metres, fixes for CAU combined with observations from Graham and Paul, who both visit Bald Hill regularly, will enable us to build up a picture of how over-wintering Grey Plover use the Gulf.