Target: 300 Birds: #166 to #170 around Port Fairy, Victoria, March 31 2016

I decied to go on a bit of a road trip today. The target was Sanderling, and the destination was Killarney Beach. I contacted my friend Bill Twiss who lives in the area and asked him for some pointers, and he was generous enough to offer himself as a local guide for the day. And I'm very lucky that he did, because without his help I would never have found the target species because they weren't at Killarney Beach - instead, they were around the bay a bit at Reef Point!

I managed to pick up three lifers for the day. The first was a Kelp Gull that was sitting offshore on some rocks at Reef Point (our first stop). Unfortunately they were too far away for photos, but Bill assured me that we would see some up close at Port fairy - and he was right! This was followed up by a large group of Sanderling. The third life tick was a bird that I've actually seen in the wild a few times before, but not since I've been keeping bird lists. And it's a dodgy tick too - Emu at Tower Hill. Clearly a sustainable wild population, yes. They're not fed, and they could wander off elsewhere if they wanted. But I'm pretty sure that they're descendants of some captive birds from long ago. And they're not at all afraid of the visitors either. Still, it seems that they're a legitimate tick, so, I ticked them!