Summer is here and the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee is open at last! What more could a birder want? A twitch, that's what!
It seems a very long time since I've been on a twitch. In fact, it's not that long really. In January, 2020, I travelled to Sydney for the Kentish Plover. With all these enforced lockdowns, it seems much longer ago than 22 months.
With great excitement I learnt that a Hudsonian Whimbrel had turned up at Toora in Gippsland. This bird has recently been granted species status by the IOC and this is the first record for Australia. I simply had to go and see it. I read that it is a large dark whimbrel with an obvious white supercilium. The illustration from the 'HBW and Birdlife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World' is the best I can do.
It was two days after my cataract surgery and my sight could have been better, but I decided I'd be satisfied if I saw a large, dark whimbrel.
Toora is about two and a quarter hours drive from Melbourne. There are lots of mangroves and a well positioned bird hide. As we drove into the carpark, we met the local farmer who'd discovered the bird. He said he'd found it last July, but he didn't know what it was.
We went straight to the bird hide to learn that the bird had been seen earlier in the day, but was no longer visible anywhere. We could see some godwits and some very handsome Royal Spoonbills. The tide looked about as far in as it was possible to be, so there were no mudflats to inspect.
Disappointed that we'd had a long, fruitless drive, we went for a walk to the boat jetty. There, unmistakably, perched on top of a mangrove, was a large, dark whimbrel. With the scope, others could see the obvious white supercilium. I was satisfied with my big dark whimbrel. Obligingly, a group of other, noticeably smaller, whimbrels sat nearby. That made sense. Our bird had been reported as being a loner. So we hadn't had a fruitless drive at all.
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| Toora, where we saw the Hudsonian Whimbrel |
