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Message: <blockquote data-quote="colonelboris" data-source="post: 1681949" data-attributes="member: 40117">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!</blockquote>

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