I go back to work tomorrow (Monday) for the madness of Term four of the school year (I'm a teacher). This means no spare time. Instead, I'll be writing reports. So I was hoping to reach my goal today... and I did! Yay!
I considered a range of locations for today, but ended up choosing Kamarooka in Bendigo because I felt I had a better chance of finding something new for the year there. But when I arrived, I found that most of the birds were hiding from the wind. I struggled to find anything until a family of Variegated Fairywren popped up and I snapped photo #299 for the year.
I pushed on towards the distillery dam where I always find a lot of birds. There were very few around today. Bugger. I moved on again to find the roads impassable in my little two-wheel-drive. Bugger. I moved back to the main road, and that's when I could hardly believe my eyes. A Square-tailed Kite was soaring right next to the car. I piled on the brakes and leapt out of the car. I fired off at least 100 photos before I realised that the settings were all wrong!!! I quickly adjusted, but the bird had moved too far away. Luckily a few adjustments to the photos on the computer recovered the photos somewhat. I was overjoyed to have this incredible species as #300 for the year, especially since seeing one and not being able to stop in time for a photo exactly a week ago when we were at Litchfiled National Park in the Northern Territory. Woo hoo!!!
I continued looking around Kamarooka wherever the roads weren't too bad, hoing to photograph a White-fronted or Purple-gaped Honeyeater, but couldn't find any. The wind was pretty ferocious and it was time to start going home.
While passing through Bendigo, I heard the familliar call of some Musk Lorikeet, a very common species that has eluded my camera all year long. I stopped, got a photo within 30 seconds, and then continued driving home. Species #301!
I might get a few more photos for the year, who knows, but I'll be taking it pretty easy from here. No more big drives until 2017 (unless something mega-rare turns up, of course).
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| #299 Variegated Fairywren |
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| #300 Square-tailed Kite |
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| #301 Musk Lorikeet |
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