Hi all.
Allan Benson, Rob Benson, Alan Morris and I made a three day trip driving to Melbourne from Central Coast / Sydney. We arrived at Werribee Sewage Farm at about 4:00 pm on Tuesday and checked the T section ponds especially no. 7 and no. 5 as well as the Austin Rd ponds until about 7:00 pm without success. We spent the Wednesday from about 7:00 am to 2:00 pm doing likewise. Conditions were quite windy on the Wednesday.
As we had to return home by Thursday pm and we had planned to visit Barham on the way, we left Werribee and arrived at Barham about 6:00 pm and proceeded directly to the locations specified in earlier postings for the Ostriches. We found 6 Ostriches in three locations over a 5 Km stretch of road. In all, three were adult males, one was female and there were two immatures. The next morning as we had to drive by the same road to head for Sydney we found five in two groups in the same area, some of which were likely to be the same birds. The birds have obviously been breeding and while they were on private land, they were not restricted by the fences.
By all accounts they qualify as being tickable as they have existed in the wild for more than 10 years and have bred up from the original number. It is certainly easier to see these ones than chartering a plane to fly over the York Peninsula in SA.
It seems the Stilt Sandpiper has returned in the meantime so I will have to consider a return trip.
Happy Birding in the New Year.
