birding-aus

Hudsonian Godwit and access rights

To: (John Boyce)
Subject: Hudsonian Godwit and access rights
From: Tony Russell <>
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 18:08:38 +1000
Hi John, had I read your email before having a second go at seeing the
godwit I might have had second thoughts about going in. Luckily I was in
transit and knew nothing of the problems experienced by yourself. Having
missed the birds ( in fact no godwits at all on any ponds)) on Friday last,
with two others had another go yesterday, Tuesday, found six godwits
straight away from the road, scoped them for 3.5hrs in boiling heat before
the right one raised it's wings. Then something flushed the hundreds of
shelducks and the godwits and we had a grand flypast, right over our heads
at about 30ft - so easy to pick once it flies!
So in response to John's note , does anyone know who to contact re access
to the Mortcam Wildlife Sanctuary? We were there, as I said, for over
3.5hrs yesterday. Only some local farming people spoke to us as they moved
their sheep along the road. There were some workers on the other side of
the pond but they ignored us.

A Little Bittern was easy to see just near the kiosk on the NW end of Lake
Wendouree - in the dark recesses on the small island.
Tony.


At 08:40  28/01/00 +1100, you wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>just thought I would mention to all those thinking of going out to see the
>Godwit at the T sect lagoon that the people who are in charge down there
>believe that this is Murtcaim wildlife area and that Werribee pass holders
>do not have access rights.  This indeed appears to correspond to the map on
>the back of the pass and the signs on the fence.  So is access allowed and
>if so how do birdwatchers prove such things to the authorities?  Apparently
>there have been complaints about all the birdwatchers in this restricted
>area and we were therefore told to leave the area yesterday.  The guy who
>kicked us out was very good about it and only kicked us out after we had
>seen the Godwit after 31/2 hours standing in pouring rain waiting for it to
>move.  Had the luck of watching it with Phil Maher and his friend Steve and
>being there when Phil clicked over 700 aus species.  Also picked a few
>WWBlack Terns out of the multitude of Whiskered at Werribee at the moment,
>and had an Australian Spotted Crake foraging close to where we were
>huddling in the rain over the back of the T junction lagoon.
>Phil also mentioned that there are Little Bitterns showing themselves
>(easily?) at L. Wendouree in Ballarat at the moment.  Any comments on that
>one?
>Best Wishes
>John Boyce
>
>***************************************************************
>John Boyce
>Department of Microbiology
>Monash University
>Clayton Rd.,
>Clayton, 3800.
>WorkPh  03 9905 4838
>HomePh  03 9376 6641
>WorkFax 03 9905 4811
>***************************************************************
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
>
>Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
>in the message body (without the quotes)
>




  Tony Russell,
  Adelaide, South Australia
  phone : 08 8337 5959  , o/s 61 8 8337 5959
  e-mail: 
  There's nothing quite like the feeling of seeing a new bird is there?

To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to

Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus"
in the message body (without the quotes)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU