Target: 300 Birds: #228 to #237 at Wyperfeld National Park, Victoria, September 21

I contacted my birding friend Jenn a few months ago and asked her about helping me do some birding around the Mallee region. Jenn has recently bought a property in Hopetoun, AKA the gateway to the Mallee, and she is getting to know the area quite well. And she was gracious enough to invite me to stay overnight and guide me to some of her favourite locations. I was overwhelmed by her offer, and started counting down the days to my first ever trip to the Mallee!!!

I set my alarm for what I call “stupid o’clock” – 2:30am – and rose excitedly to get ready for a four hour drive. After allowing for some time to get ready and for the coffee to kick in, I was backing out of the driveway by 3:20am. After about 45 minutes I saw a petrol station and thought I would go in to buy more coffee to keep me alert and awake while driving. But when I got out of the car I realised that I had left my wallet at home!!! After unleashing a relentless string of highly offensive language, I decided that I needed to return to get it. I drove home, and left for a second time a bit after 5:00am, cursing my foolishness all the way.

I made good time and arrived at Hopetoun about four hours later to find that it was raining. Fortunately, the rain radar indicated that the rain would soon stop, so we soon set off towards northern Wyperfeld. Jenn had some other birders visiting as well – Graeme and Sally – and Graeme offered to drive us all in his brand new four-wheel-drive.

We stopped at Patchewollop to look for White-fronted Honeyeaters, but didn’t find any. I saw what I thought was a Yellow-throated Miner, but when I looked at the photo on the back of the camera I re-evaluated it as an ever-so-common Noisy Miner. Luckily, I checked the photo again at home and saw that it was indeed a Yellow-throated Miner, clocking up species #228 photographed for 2016!

We then drove on to Wyperfeld, stopping a few times where I managed to photograph Greater Bluebonnet and Australian Ringneck. Then Jenn led us to her super special super secret Splendid Fairy-wren location where, as I desperately hoped for, we saw and photographed a vividly blue male Splendid Fairy-wren, my first lifer for the day! I also managed to get a photo of a Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, as well as a Little Eagle that was soaring overhead.

Next, we headed through the Wyperfeld gates to find a lot of water and very muddy tracks. Thankfully, Graeme’s four-wheel-drive got us through some very dodgy looking sections of road. He really did seem to enjoy those massive puddles, and shrieked with delight as the back end of the car skidded around. I, however, was terrified!! I kept imagining us getting bogged, and there was absolutely no mobile phone coverage…

As we explored the park, Jenn managed to guide us to three more lifers – Brown Songlark (my 300th Victorian bird species), Regent Parrot, and Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo. On the way out of the park, we stopped to get photos of a Hooded Robin, and I excitedly chased some treecreepers, extremely confident that they were White-browed Treecreepers, another lifer. They didn’t sound like the Brown Treecreepers that I encounter regularly at Eynesbury, and for this reason I was claiming to be 100% sure of my ID. When I got back in the car and checked the field guide on my phone I soon realised that they were in fact Brown Treecreepers. Dang! They do look quite similar though…

It was an amazing but short visit to Wyperfeld, and I will most certainly be heading back one day (hopefully when it’s a bit drier) to see what else I can find!