Hi birders
I spent a couple of hours at Werribee sewage farm (the Western Treatment
Complex to be official) this afternoon. This famous & smelly wetland is
about 30km southwest of Melbourne towards Geelong, and covers the area
between the Werribee and Little Rivers, plus a bit.
There were huge numbers of birds there today. I clocked up 66 species in a
couple of hours, and of the species I made attempts to count (mostly ducks &
waders), I came up with about 15,000 birds. There were at least 10,000
ducks on Lake Borrie and nearby ponds - mostly Pink-eared Duck, but with
sizeable numbers of Chestnut Teal and Australasian Shoveller. I consider my
scope properly initiated now - with lovely views of a female Freckled Duck
about 50m away in good light (I saw 4 Freckled Ducks on Lake Borrie and the
big pond immediately to its west). Other highlights included 4 Glossy Ibis,
a lone Black-tailed Godwit, about 30 Double-banded Plovers at the Little
River mouth, about 300 Red-necked Avocets (150 at Paradise Road, 150 at
Austin Road), about 100 Banded Stilts (50:50 at Paradise:Austin Roads); etc.
Here's my list, with some approximate counts for selected species.
Stubble Quail 1
Blue-billed Duck 20
Musk Duck 200
Freckled Duck 4
Black Swan 40
Australian Shelduck 50
Grey Teal 100
Chestnut Teal 3000
Pacific Black Duck 200
Australasian Shoveler 2500
Pink-eared Duck 6500
Hardhead 500
Hoary-headed Grebe 1000
Great Crested Grebe 1
Little Pied Cormorant
Pied Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Australian Pelican 10
White-faced Heron 4
Great Egret 1
Glossy Ibis 4
Australian White Ibis 1
Straw-necked Ibis 20
Royal Spoonbill 4
Black-shouldered Kite 2
Whistling Kite 4
Swamp Harrier 10
Little Eagle 1
Brown Falcon 1
Nankeen Kestrel 1
Purple Swamphen 10
Eurasian Coot
Black-tailed Godwit 1
Red-necked Stint 250
Curlew Sandpiper 1
Pied Oystercatcher 10
Black-winged Stilt 10
Banded Stilt 110
Red-necked Avocet 300
Red-capped Plover 20
Double-banded Plover 30
Red-kneed Dotterel 1
Masked Lapwing 2
Pacific Gull
Silver Gull
Crested Tern
Fairy Tern
Superb Fairy-wren
White-browed Scrubwren
Striated Fieldwren
Brown Thornbill
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
White-fronted Chat
Magpie-lark
Willie Wagtail
Australian Magpie
Little Raven
Skylark
Richard's Pipit
House Sparrow
European Goldfinch
Welcome Swallow
Little Grassbird
Golden-headed Cisticola
Common Starling
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L A W R I E C O N O L E
2/37 Myrnong Crescent, Ascot Vale, Victoria 3032 AUSTRALIA.
Phone AH (03) 9370 3928; BH (03) 9510 5750; Mobile (0419) 588 993.
E-mail: <>
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