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Message: <blockquote data-quote="colonelboris" data-source="post: 1687237" data-attributes="member: 40117">Rubbish weather birding Part 2.However, with the sun coming out, things were looking a little better.  I started to to walk up to Bicentennial Park and in Powell's Creek, some of the sharpies were rummagging through the mud.  One bird looked a little different, though.  A look through the scope gave a lifer: Pacific Golden Plover.  Would have made a nice photo, too.There was very little to be seen in the waterbird refuge - the water level was high, while in the bay, the tide was right out.  I guess many of the waders had gone out there on the mudflats, but I couldn't see very much through the mangroves.  Quite a few Silvereyes on route and another Yellow Thornbill, only the second I've seen and only a few days after the first in the same spot.  As I got to the bird hide, I could see another bank of cloud rolling in, possibly large and dark enough to herald the end of days, but as it was moving slowly, I reckoned on having enough time to get back to a decent bit of shelter with a coke machine, which luckily I did, just as the first drops were falling.  However, bad luck caught up again.  I had somehow lost all of my change and, to make matter worse, they only had Coke Zero.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  While I was sobbing on the inside, the skies cleared to give the very odd sight of light rain falling from an almost empty sky.  Off I went to Bennelong Pond.  On the way, I bumped into a chap who had seen the Lewin's Rail at another pond, so I thought I'd have a look as well (there wasn't much at Bennelong Pond).  The bird had been reported as hanging around at the top end of Triangle Pond, which was where I'd set up.  Almost straight away, I got a look at a Spotless Crake, which was another lifer.  The sun had been very strong again at this point, but the largest and darkest band of cloud I'd seen yet was rolling in.  A very strong wind came with it and a lot of the birds ran for cover.  At this point, another chap came up with bins and a camera.  We looked for the rail for a while, but with no luck.  Troy (for that was his name), had also seen the afore-mentioned ringed sharpie.  Turns out it had been ringed very recently in that spot... After a bit, the rain came again and that was that. As we packed up, the zip broke on my tripod bag.  Luckily, Troy offered a very welcome lift to the station, which I gladly accepted.There was one final kick to this.  My train ticket had been soked to the point where the magnetic strip was dissolving and the writing had gone as well, so I had to buy another ticket.  As mentioned above, I'd somehow lost my change and the Mrs had the cash card.  "Aha!", I think, "I'll use my old Swiss card, must be a few francs left on that."  However, it expired on 31/12/2009...  Thankfully, my old UK account came to rescue and allowed me to get home.I'm going to open the last bottle of cider now...</blockquote>

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