Hi all,
Well the old story about the tailor and flies goes something like that anyway, but at WTP on Monday we had the wonderful site of a pair of swans and their seven fluffy-white swanlets. They were on pond 4 at the “T” section with the crakes. There are still at least three Baillon’s and three Australian Spotted in the reed-beds and they were easy to watch, even with the wind blowing in excess of 50 kph.
The wind made wader watching very hard as it had to be done from inside the car. I have a monopod for the scope so with the lee side window open it was not too bad – except when we got a back draft. Yuck, poopond dust everywhere. As soon as I got home the binoculars went into the kitchen sink for a wash, my clothes hit the laundry floor and I headed straight for the shower.
The wind was hard on the birds too with many flying backwards until they changed their travel plans and stopped trying to fly into it. One swan at the “T” section would have made a very easy photo as it was flying hard without moving, until it gave up and landed back in the pond.
Many of the Red-necked Stints are still carrying colour and make a nice change from the usual winter grey we normally see. The other coloured wader, the Golden Plover, has now been confirmed 100% as a Pacific after some confusing plumage elements were cleared up but on Monday it was nowhere to be seen.
There were very few ducks around but some rafts of Coots were practicing surfing the waves on the ponds and bay and Avocets, Black-wing and Banded Stilts are still in big numbers. To add to the egrets and herons that are normally seen there were also three White-necked Herons down at the Western Lagoon.
Non-birding event of the day was watching a very beautiful tiger snake on one of the dry mud edges to the track. It moved steadily along the bank sticking its head into every crack and small hole it could find as it checked for a feed. It was fascinating to watch.
The wind made the day so unpleasant that we didn’t try for every species but I still had a total of 72 when I entered the sightings onto my computer. It will also be interesting to hear what all that north wind blew down to Victoria when people start reporting in.
There is also an empty black and tan camera/binocular case in the bird hide too, if anyone has lost one.
Cheers
Jenny ===============================
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