Dowitcher Dip

Hi all, To follow on from Jen typically wonderful account of her twitching trip to see the Short-nosed/Long-nosed/American/Short-tailed (my typo) Dowitcher, just a quick reply about my twitching trip, whoops, I mean twitching dip. Well, actually dip is probably the wrong word in this case. Although I’d packed the binos, bags, camera, etc, and everything was ready to go, and in the car, I did actually leave the house! I was planning to go the same day as Jen and others, however my wonderful wife informed me that I HAD to pick up my son James from school and would have to wait till she got home. So, knowing that I wouldn’t get there until after dark, I rescheduled for the next morning. Everything was settled. Two great days around Lake Tutchewop, Goschen and Swan Hill (one of my fav Victorian birding spots) was planned. So, woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, dropped both kids off at school – one primary, the other secondary – then ready to go. Then, the message that all birders dread! Especially when you’ve got a life tick on your very doorstep; “unfortunately the bird has not been seen today”! What!!! So, while Jen and other birders relax, maybe back in Melbourne, sipping their caffè latte, or drinking a cold well-deserved ale, and gloat about the great bird they’ve just seen (“didn’t it look fantastic in its full breeding plumage!”, etc), I sat at my computer, continually checking stupid Birding-aus, Eremaea and Facebook (they’re not really stupid, just today, they’re very stupid), and hoped that one of those brave birding souls who’s currently up at Lake Tutchewop find that stupid Short-tailed Dowitcher (my typo), or what ever it is. Of course, I’d go and look myself, but, you know, kids. So, in these circumstance, naturally there’s only two things that can be wished for. One, the bird turns up again, I jump in the car, and get myself a life tick – then drink a quiet beer and gloat like crazy i.e. “gee, the bill was really long wasn’t it!”. Or, two, hope that it’s identity is never fully resolved, so everyone who’s already seen it can only tick a ‘possible so and so’. That’s not too harsh is it? Cheers, Tim ________________________________________ From: Birding-Aus [birding-aus-bounces@birding-aus.org] on behalf of Jenny Spry [malurus.jenny@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2014 4:46 PM To: birding-aus Subject: [Birding-Aus] Dowitcher trip Hi all, Here’s how the Great Dowitcher Twitch went for me. I heard about it on Monday and by 1600 I had arranged to go up with friends and we left my place at 0430 Tuesday. After a frantic four-hour drive filled with the excitement of seeing such a rare bird and the fear it had already left we arrived at the lake. Of course the sighting had to be filled with stress. We arrived at the north end of the lake where it had been seen the day before and joined a few people staring at a few common waders – no Dowitcher in sight!! Then a phone call from the south end of the lake, the bird had been found – a mad dash along the dirt track on top of an irrigation channel BUT, the bird had flown, we “should have been there 10 minutes ago”, that age old birding curse. A nervous group of birders, now about 14 people, huddled around scopes for half an hour in the cold morning wind looking at where the bird had been and willing it to emerge from behind a pelican or stilt. Another phone call! The bird’s at the north end! A convoy of 6 cars dash wildly back along the irrigation channel and stop, people fall out of cars and creep toward a small group peering into scopes. There it is, a sigh of relief from all and lots of relieved laughter. Quite the mega-twitch. To finish the day off we pulled into a small dust track beside the river at Kerang and there we found a small family of Grey-crowned Babblers, a bird rarely seen anywhere near Kerang, a real surprise. cheers Jenny http://jenniferspryausbirding.blogspot.com.au/