About 25 hours to go for our VicTwitch 2010.
Yesterday we drove from Ouyen to Murrayville, then south along the famous Murrayville Track into Big Desert. For the first part of the journey we looked for Crimson Chats, but had no luck. For the southern part of the Murrayville Track, and then west along the Red Bluff Track, south along the Border Track and east along Red Bluff Road, we searched for Bustards, but did not see any. The Border Track is cut up so badly that it became impassable south of Red Bluff Road, so we had to abandon that part of the search and headed east along the Red Bluff Road – which was interesting as it basically goes through paddocks. It has long been a goal of mine to drive the Murrayville Track, so even without seeing Bustards at least one goal was reached!
After unsuccessfully searching Big Desert and the area between Big Desert and Telopea Downs for Bustards we head headed south through Kaniva then through Little Desert, completing a full-house of Victoria’s Mallee Parks. We decided to overnight at Hamilton so that we could search for Masked Owls to the west, but have easy access to Portland in the morning without having to drive for hours. After dinner we headed west to Casterton, then to Strathdownie to search for the owls. We searched Grubbed Road and Wilkin School Road in areas where the forest abuts open heath. We had no success, so decided to call it a night around midnight. We were driving along Grubbed Road heading to the Glenelg Highway, in a spot with forest and open heath between two plantations. In the headlights of the car, we saw an intermediate morph Masked Owl – a largish bird, brown wings and pale but quite noticeably mottled breast and underparts. FINALLY! This bird (along with Bustard) has been a bogey-bird for us for the entire year! Masked Owl – number 387 for the year! The owl noticed us and, grabbing its meal, slowly flew off to the forest in the distance.
This morning we headed to Portland and spent some time searching for Baillon’s Crake at the Aloca Wetlands with Rob Farnes. The weather has been so mild and still recently that there is not much point in seabird watching, as nothing is being blown into shore. From Portland we called in to Killarney Beach – but few birds there (not even the usual Sanderlings).
As we were driving home the car began to shudder – uh oh, something was wrong. At Inverleigh we pulled over into a service station and checked the wheels and tyres, but could find nothing wrong. I called my local Mitsubishi dealership and persuaded them to have a look at the car and sort out the problem first thing in the morning. Anyway, we proceeded to drive home and on the Princes Freeway near Werribee there was an incredible noise from the front right of the car, the car pulled violently to the right and I could see bits of something flying everywhere. I managed to pull over into the emergency lane, and waited for a gap in the traffic to assess the situation. I got out and saw that the front driver’s side tyre was completely shredded – our FOURTH shredded tyre of the year and our SECOND shredded tyre of the last two weeks.
I called RACV and they informed me that a tow truck would be there within the hour. I have to say that it is pretty hairy sitting in the emergency lane of the Princes Freeway with the trucks and cars zooming past, just inches from the mirror. At least it gave us a chance to check up on emails, make some calls and check Birdline. What should we notice? Two TEREK SANDPIPERS at the Western Treatment Plant. Now that is the definition of frustration – sitting in a disabled car with a bird we desperately need for our year list not more than a few kilometres away! By the time the car was sorted out we had lost light, and could not go for the bird. Let’s hope it’s still there in the morning!
So tomorrow we will search for the Terek at the WTP and continue our search for Baillon’s Crakes anywhere we can think of to look!
Paul Dodd and Ruth Woodrow
Currently back in Melbourne…
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