#203 to #205 at Werribee and then the You Yangs, Victoria, July 4

I was not meant to go out birding today. I had organised an outing with my wife, and my parents were going to babysit the kids. But my wife came down with the flu, so I need to take the kids out so that she could rest. My parents were still keen to babysit, which worked out well for me! I left the kids with them and headed out to see what I could see.

My first stop was to look for an Osprey along the Werribee River. Osprey are extremely rare in Victoria, but I was lucky enough to see one fly along the coast at Thirteenth Beach (Barwon Heads) a few years ago. I also saw one at the start of this year when I was in Brisbane where they are more common, but I missed getting an in-focus photo. I was hoping for a better photo, but in reality expecting not to find it at all. As soon as I arrived at the location, I heard a heap of Purple-crowned Lorikeets, and after a quick scan of the area for the Osprey (without luck), I spent a bit of time trying to get a photo of the lorikeets. The grim, overcast conditions made any sort of photography difficult at best...

After about 20 minutes and a thorough search of the area I came to the conclusion that there was no Osprey to be found, and went to get in the car. I was not at all disappointed because it was not a lifer or an addition to the year list. I opened the car door, looked out across the river, and almost choked as I saw an Osprey flying past! I fired off a burst of photos and managed to get some that were in focus, although the bird was quite distant and the photo needed cropping. I ran (a rare thing for me) to where the Osprey flew, hoping that it had perched. It did a U-turn and headed back downstream. The Osprey was gone in no time at all. It was all over in less than 10 seconds, but it was an exhilarating 10 seconds for sure!!!

#204 Osprey

I then drove to the You Yangs. I see other peoples' lists on eBird from the You Yangs and see that there are good birds there. I've barely explored the place, and on the few occaions that I have been there I have failed to find much at all. Today, I planned to explore it a bit more thoroughly and see what I could find. Once again, I found very little at all. The whole place was eerily quiet, with only very occasional sightings of the more common species of birds.

After a while, I decided to drive to the only spot at the You Yangs that I had had some success with in the past - a place known at the Western Plantation. However, even this location was quiet except for some extremely skittish Buff-rumped Thornbills, until eventually a feeding flock came through with Striated Pardalote, Spotted Pardalote and a pair of Scarlet Robin. I finally managed to get some reasonable photos of Spotted Pardalote, a fairly common bird that I have taken numerous bad photos of all year long!

I eventually left the Western Plantation and drove slowly along the Sandy Creek road back towards the main entrance, looking for Jacky Winter. I've seen them along this stretch of road every time that I've looked, and today was no exception. The poor light made a 'good' photo difficult, though I managed to get one that I was happy with!

#204 Spotted Pardalote

#205 Jacky Winter

Werribee River eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30516998
You Yangs eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30518281

After today...
2016 year list: 258
2016 photos: 206