Went out this morning with Rob Hynson for a spot of birding over at Pitt Town. Within a minute of leaving the car, a tiny brown ball on whirring wings jumped up and disappeared ito the long grass - some type of quail, but too quick for a positive ID. No matter - plenty of birding yet to do. While walking over to a mound in order to look out over the lagoon, I saw a male Mistletoe bird working over a shrub. Settin the scope up, we quickly found Australian Pelicans, Black-winged Stilts, Royal Spoonbills and Little Pied Cormorants, amongst several of the commoner ducks. Nearer the far side, I caught a glimpse of a duck with D-Day stripes - a Pink-eared Duck. A pair of Australasian Shovelers, one eclipse male and a female, swan past. At this point, we left to walk over to another part of the lagoon to meet Ed, a friend of Rob. As we walked, a few Golden-headed Cisticolas were darting around in the tall grass and a flight of six Glossy Ibis flew over and around.
Round the other side, we looked for crakes, which Rob and Ed said came out more on overcast days, and we saw a pair of Australian Spotted Crakes and a single Baillon's Crake. There were several Red-kneed Dotterel on the edge of the water, which can run pretty fast. There were also a couple of dozen Sharp-tailed Sandpipers in all. Ed told us that there were four Black-tailed Native-hens about, of which I saw three and soon after, a Swamp Harrier flew over the islands in the lagoon. On the far side, a group of Royal Spoonbills were rooting through the mud and at the back of the convoy was a single Yellow-billed Spoonbill. We looked for any sign of a Spotless Crake, but no luck. As we left to move on, a Latham's Snipe brroke cover from the edge of the reeds and barrelled over to the lake.
We then moved on to the sewage treatment works at McGraths Hill. A few more Black-winged Stilts were there, as were a couple of Spotted Crakes and another Baillon's Crake. Ed saw a Little Grassbird and imitated the call. A few minutes later a couple of them came into sight. On the further of the two pools, Ed pointed out a Marsh Sandpiper, which disappeared after another Swamp Harrier flew over. On a pool on the other side of the road, Rob pointed out a Black-fronted Dotterel.
We drove along to some turf farms near Windsor and stopped to look for Banded Lapwings, but no luck. A little further on was a site where Rainbow Bee-eaters had been seen and one was there on a telephone wire. A bit further on was a nest site where a pair were tending to a chick in a burrow. I was pretty stoked by this as I'd never managed to see a Bee-eater while in Switzerland. As we were about to go again, a Nankeen Kestrel was seen on top of a telegraph pole just above us. Driving on, a Brown Falcon flew across some fields. We stopped at a lake where we could hear Skylarks and various doves calling, but didn't see much other than some Australian Woodducks.
A bit further along was a huge group of Straw-necked Ibis. We stoped at a small chain of ponds to have a speculative look for Painted Snipe, but instead Ed heard, and then saw, a White-winged Triller, which showed off those wings well while flying around near us. We then got a pair of Restless Flycatchers feeding a fledgling on a fence. They were making the mechanical grinding noise which gives them the nickname 'scissor grinders'. Ed left us at this point and Rob and I went on round the corner. In a small grove of lemon trees, a group of Yellow-rumped Thornbills were doing a good lemon impression with their rumps. We stopped a little further up to have a look at what turned out to be a Willie Wagtail, but I also managed to get a good look at a group of Red-rumped Parrots hanging around a dead tree. Driving, on we found ourselves in a flock of Zebra Finches, which gave some nice views while they were hopping about on the road.
For a mere five hours, I racked up a total of twenty-three lifers - just under a quarter of my Australian list so far and taking me over 250 on the year list.
Many thanks to Rob and Ed for the day out!
