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Message: <blockquote data-quote="colonelboris" data-source="post: 1687226" data-attributes="member: 40117">Rubbish weather birding Part 1.I shouldn't have got out of bed this morning, I really shouldn't have.Today was a trip compounded of bad luck, catrastrophic material failures and more bad luck.  I decided to go to Mason's Park Wetlands, just south of Bicentennial Park as I had seen that Red-necked Stints had been seen there.  Off I set, heavily laden with gear and supplies for a long day's walking.  I was steadily racking up year ticks as I was walking through Powell's Creek Reserve and got quite a few as I made it to Mason's Park.  On the horizon, I could see some rather angry clouds, but looking at the speed they were moving, I should have had plenty of time to finish up and walk to one of the shelters in Bicentennial Park.  However, I was wrong.  The clouds just rolled straight in and I was caught in one of the heaviest showers I've been stuck in, some way from the nearest cover.  I looked for the lovely waterproof German army parka in my bag, only to find I'd forgotten to pack it.  All those hours of lugging the bloody thing around in hot weather for nothing and the one time I did forget it was when I really needed it.  It got bad enough for me to decide to remove the battery from my camera and put it in my new waterproof rucksack, as per the maker's recommendations.  Big mistake.  The only waterproof bit I could see afterwards was the base, which allowed an inch of water to pool up in the bottom of the bag, which has completely shagged the battery.  At $80 a pop, I've been happier.  When I finally got to somewhere that I could shelter in, I found that Simpson and Day's much-vaunted 'water-resistent end pages' are nothing of the sort and the cover delaminates very easily.  As no-one else was around to witness the hideous spectacle, I took off my shirt to wring it out a bit.  This action was accompanied by a long and fearful 'riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip', much akin to how the tearing of space-time would sound, and my shirt had decided that an extra vent in the back was needed.However, after half-an-hour of muttering all manner of curses and resolving that the next time an Australian commented on the weather in Britain he was going to get a kick in the nuts, the rain stopped.  Back to Mason's Park I went.  The birding wasn't too bad.  Quite a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and three Curlew Sandpipers with them.  One of the sharpies was ringed, so I noted down what I could see to do my bit for conservation or whatever it was ringed for.  More on this later.  Also a group of Eastern Koels (including a male) and a pair of Figbirds.  No sign of any stints, however, but by this point I had expected that.  The sun suddenly popped out with a ferocity I hadn't yet experienced here and despite two applications of Swiss Army suncreen, I was going a fetching shade of lobster in minutes.</blockquote>

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