When birding friends, Sandra and Misja, invited me to spend a day at Werribee with them, I jumped at the chance. Naturally. Who wouldn't? (This photo was taken by Sandra, and shows Sandra, Misja, Helen Yuille and me. It was taken by Sandra Walker.) We chose to go on Saturday, and were lucky with the weather. Of course it was cold and windy, but it is July after all. We invited our friend, Helen Yuille, to join us and started off (as I usually do) at the end of Point Wilson Road looking for Brolgas. All three of these people (that is to say, everyone in our group except me!) have excellent eyesight, so it is a pleasure to go birding with them. Sandra spied a couple of Brolga straight away, so we were off to a great start. I set myself the goal of seeing 70 species for the day, but I really wanted to see a Glossy Ibis and a European Greenfinch, both of which would have been new for my year list. As it happened, I came home with only 62 species for the day, and I did not see either of my target birds. You might think the day was a disappointment, but it was far from that. I had a wonderful time. I think it's fair to say that we all did. Only when I was home did I check my records. I have my personal Werribee records from 2000, when Melbourne Water first gave us lists to check off. (Checking my earlier records is a laborious task of going through old notebooks.) It's funny how your memory plays tricks on you. I'd have said that Glossy Ibis were not rare, uncommon yes, but rare, no. Indeed, that's how the list categorises them. In fact, I last saw a Glossy Ibis in spring 2018. I have ten Werribee records between 2000 and 2008. So, it's not a bird I can expect to see readily. I've seen many more Greenfinch. In 2022, I saw them in summer and spring, and I have 14 records between 2000 and 2018. But perhaps I should have seen them more frequently, because Melbourne Water categorises them as abundant. I'm not sure I agree that that assessment is still correct. If a bird is really 'abundant' I expect to see it every time I visit. Helen wanted to see an Austalasian Bittern and an Orange-bellied Parrot. Who doesn't? She, too, dipped on her targets. I last saw a bittern at Werribee in winter 2023, but I have just three records since 2000. I guess it's an exciting bird, so I tend to remember the sightings, but I'd have said that I'd seen them many more times than that. We saw some cooperative raptors during the day, such as this Black-shouldered Kite that Helen photographed.
We saw lots of Black-shouldered Kites throughout the day. Also Black Kites, Brown Falcons and Nankeen Kestrels, but, surprisingly, just one Whistling Kite. We saw more Black Swans in one spot in one day than I think I ever have before. We couldn't agree on a total, but certainly there were several hundred. We saw all the ducks you'd expect, except, for some reason, we dipped on one of my favourites, the Pink-eared Duck. We had marvelous close views of Red-necked Stints together with just a few Sharp-tailed and Curlew Sandpipers. I didn't get out the scope, they were so close you didn't really need binoculars. We saw four Black-tailed Nativehens as we were crossing the river, and just one very brazen Australian Crake on the track to the bird hide. He was quite happy out in the open, defying his shy and elusive reputation. For me, the Bird of the Day was unquesionably a Brown Songlark, that sat on the road in front of the car and invited us to admire him. A great day, thank you, Sandra and Misja! Amazing that it can be so good when nobody achieves his targets!
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