Oops... mis-ID problem with my 2016 list!!!

Part of birding is identifying species, and part of identifying species is making mistakes. Of course, nobody sets out to make identification errors, but they happen, and this one happened to me. My photo #13 for 2016 which I had as an Olive-backed Oriole is in fact a female Australasian Fig Bird. This has been fixed now, but that means the numbers are all off by 1 up until #310 which is when I actually did get a photo of an Olive-backed Oriole, which is shown below. This photo was taken at Wonga Park, Victoria, on Dcember 11 2016.

Final Post!!!!

It seems that my photographic endeavours for 2016 have come to an end. This has been a lot of fun. With persistence, determination and a healthy dose of luck I managed to find and photograph 311 species of birds in 2016.

In 2017 I am not setting any targets for birding. Instead, I plan to simply enjoy finding and photographing wildlife wherever I may be. I am going to blog my outings at a new blog here: http://andrewallenphotography.blogspot.com.au/

Bye!

#311 White-winged Triller @ Woodlands Historic Park, Victoria, December 21

I planned to get out of bed early and spend the day wandering around Woodlands Historic Park. However, I slept in, and didn't get there until around 10:15am. By that time in the summer, even on milder days, the birds have all finished doing what they do and found somewhere cooler to spend the day. Of course, this did not bother me at all, because I had my macro lens and the flowering gums were teeming with insects. I spent 99% of my time photographing insects an spiders (posted here facebook.com/AndrewAllenPhotos) until I heard the trilling call of a White-winged Triller. I eventually found at least two, but they were both very high up in the trees. I got the best photo I could manage for species #311 photographed in 2016!

#311 White-winged Triller

#310 Australian Raven at Wonga Park, Victoria, December 11

I decided to go and look for an apparently reliable Azure Kingfisher at Heritage Wetlands in Wonga Park last week, but couldn't find it. So I decided to go and have another crack at it, and dipped again! It's not a lifer, but it would be a new one for my Victorian list, and a new one for my year photos. While I was there I heard the distinctive call of two Australian Raven, and managed to get species photo #310 for 2016.

#310 Australian Raven

#309 Pacific Koel at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Victoria, November 27

I decided to go and have a look for the Pacific Koel that frequents the Botanic Gardens at this time of year. The first bird that I 'ticked' for the year was a very vocal Pacific Koel that was calling in the pre-dawn darkness on January 1 when I was in Brisbane. My previous experiences with attempting to photograph this species have all been challenging ones, as these birds call infrequently and like to hide behind foliage. It took considerable effort to find the right tree, and then at least an hour before I could sight the bird, but I was thrilled to get a recognisable photo.

#309 Pacific Koel

#308 White-throated Gerygone at Cummins Reserve and Wetlands, Yea, Victoria, November 20

After dipping on photos of pretty much everything at Toolangi I decided to try my luck at Yea, about a half an hours drive away. As soon as I got out of the car I could hear the melodious call of the White-throated Gerygone. It was absolutely beautiful. There were two of them, but they weren't too keen on me getting any sort of close approach. A heavily cropped photo will have to do then!

#308 White-throated Gerygone

#307 Rufous Fantail at Toolangi, Victoria, November 20

My love-hate relationship with Toolangi continued today. I love the place, but I really hate trying to find birds there. If you like hearing birds, then Toolangi is certainly the place to go. Seeing them is a lot more difficult. Getting a photo - don't even bother. I dipped on too many photos to count, but did manage a low-light motion-blurred Rufous Fantail that needed significant post-processing sharpening to even look halfway reasonable.

#307 Rufous Fantail