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
