Target: 300 Birds: #238 to #241 at Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, Victoria, September 22 2016

I have wanted to visit Hattah-Kulkyne National Park for a long time, and today I finally made it there!

After a very successful day yesterday birding around Wyperfeld with Jenn, Graeme and Sally, we got up at a respectable 6:00am to get ready and drive to Hattah. Along the way Jenn and Graeme demonstrated excellent spotting skills by spotting a Spotted Harrier. Unfortunately I only managed crappy photos. But... it's the best photo I've ever taken of a Spotter Harrier, so I'm still happy to post my crappy photo here as species #238 photographed for the year.

We stopped off at Ouyen for coffee, and I managed to find a few White-breasted Woodswallows sitting on the power lines above for photo #239 for the year.

We eventually arrived at Hattah, where the roads were quite wet, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday's Wyperfeld expedition. We stopped off at a location that the mega-elusive Striated Grasswren had been seen recently, and I'm certain that I heard one on a few occasions, but there was no visual at all. There was, however, a lot of fast flying Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters which I eventually managed to photograph albeit in poor light.

Then we headed to the famous Nowingi track in search of Malle Emu-wren. I wasn't overly confident about finding any - many, many birders have looked and failed. But no less than 20 metres into the track I heard them, and got a brief glimpse of two Emu-wrens before they completely vanished. We pushed on, and about 150 metres further along the track I heard them again. Then I saw one. Then I got a photo. Then I did my happy dance. My VERY happy dance. Then they were everywhere. I saw at least eight, but I'm sure there were more, and for one moment I could hear many calls coming from all directions. But the little things were fast, and continuously ducked and weaved through the spinifex, popping up every now and then, but always behind foliage. I managed some crappy record photos, and I'm EXTREMELY happy that I at least got a record of this amazing sighting. I had done my homework by listening to a recording of their calls many times over the past few weeks, which certainly paid off as I reconised their soft calls immediately and I was able to track them down.

We had a quick explore of the rest of the park (it really is a beautiful place) and saw quite a few more birds, but nothing new for the year photo list. It was a super-quick visit to a HUGE national park that I simply cannot wait to get back to. It really is an amazing place.