Dear Birders,
The GHL was alive and well at Burren Junction at 4:30 yesterday (Thursday)
afternoon.
I flew up to Narrabri, hired a car and was at Burren Junction at around 9:45
which was a bit later than a number of others had seen the bird. I looked at
all the usual haunts (ditch opposite the silo, paddock opposite and just east
of the silo, swampy area opposite pub on the north side of the highway and the
paddock north of the Telstra tower) but NO bird.
After a couple of hours of fruitless searching a couple of Brisbane birders
arrived and we circled the town peering into culverts, walking through
paddocks, ducking up side roads and generally getting up close and personal
with just about every damn bird in Burren Junction. In desperation I drove out
to the hot spring bathing area in case it had gone to the wet area that the
bore drains into. There were lots of grey heads there but all attached to
arthritic pensioners "taking the waters" not to lapwings. I did meet there an
acquaintance from the Wollongong pelagic trips who confirmed that he had seen
the bird that very morning on the paddock opposite the silo.
More driving around and around the town (not very big!). Around 3:30 Alan
Morris and a friend arrived making 3 vehicles perambulating around town to the
sympathetic amusement of the locals. By this time I was getting a bit worried
as I had to be back on a plane at 7:00 from Narrabri and the sun was sinking
towards the west in any case.
Around 4:30 the Brisbane birders (bless their little cotton socks) roared up to
say they had just seen it in the ditch right beside the highway opposite the
silo. They went off to find Alan while I drove to within a 100 m of the ditch
and spotted the bird. Just as I did so a car came from the other direction and
put the bird to flight. I was able to see where it went and we soon got onto it
again beside the pond behind the work compound opposite the silo. We all had 5
minutes or so before it took off to the east not to be found again with a
rather cursory look.
Regards
Peter Marsh
Birchgrove NSW
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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