Congratulations to all of the twitchathon teams, there were lots of great
totals and everyone seemed to look terrific and wide awake at the barbecue
We, the Plain Silly Wanderers (John Boyce, Scott Chandry and non team
member but designated driver Cecilia Chandry) decided to follow Lawrie
Conole and the Common Driving Petrolheads lead and submit a complete trip
report for our first twitchathon. Our final total was 127.
Our start was near Little Desert N.P. (LDNP) in western Victoria. We did
a bit of scouting on the Friday and early Saturday before the competition
began. Our best sighting of the trip was before the start of the
twitchathon. During our drive from LDNP to Nhill for dinner we spotted
the face of a Barn Owl in the grass by the side of the road. As we pulled
up and shut down the car it flew onto a fence post and gave us excellent
views until it decided that it was sick of us and took off. Another
highlight was the seemingly uncountable 1000s of Banded Stilts in the
lakes near Natimuk south of LDNP.
During the twitchathon we had both good and bad luck. On the bad side we
spotted some Pink-eared ducks at our starting point but lost sight of them
when the start time arrived, we didnAt bother to track them down because
they would be easy to get at Werribee sewage plant. Normally they seem to
be there in the millions but on Sunday they must have had somewhere more
pleasant to go. We lost lots of valuable daylight on the Saturday while
travelling on a dirt track and came upon a flock of about 100 sheep moving
slightly slower than walking pace. We were within just a few hundred
metres of the wide paved road but couldnAt get by, we just waited to see
which came first, getting by the sheep or our car overheating. Also, on
Fri & Sat we saw stacks of thornbills but once the counting began they
became so scarce that we thought we might not get any (we finally got some
but only two). Although probably our worst miss was an Eastern yellow
robin.
On the good luck side, just after the sheep put us off schedule we arrived
at the Sanctuary Nature walk in LDNP and the Mallefowl had kindly left his
mound and come to the carpark to save us some time. We were also lucky
enough to watch two Brown goshawks fight over a rabbit. The Shy heathwren
which popped into view just long enough for us to count is was also a
bonus. And, just when we had written off Yellow-tailed black cockatoo a
small flock flew past the car window on the road toward the Brisbane
Ranges while we were speeding along at 100 kph.
P. Scott Chandry
Full list follows:
Saturday:
Lakes near Natimuk and the roads between:
Aust. Shelduck
Blue-billed duck
Musk duck
Hardhead
Grey teal
Coot
Little Black Cormorant
Great crested grebe
Hoary-headed grebe
Superb fairy-wren
Silver gull
Swamp Harrier
House sparrow
Purple swamphen
Aust. magpie
Starling
Galah
Laughing kookaburra
Welcome swallow
Nankeen kestrel
Magpie-lark
Mitre Rock:
White-browed babbler
Red-rumped parrot
Brown treecreeper
Spiny-cheeked honeyeater (HE)
White-plumed HE
On the road to Little Desert Lodge:
Tree martin
Noisy minor
Willie wagtail
Straw-necked ibis
Yellow-rumped thornbill
Black-necked stilt
White-fronted chat
White-faced heron
Masked lapwing
Red-necked avocet
Banded stilt
Long-billed corella
Jackie winter
Eastern rosella
Little Desert Lodge:
Red wattlebird
Purple-crowned lorikeet
Shy heathwren
Crested pigeon
Tawny-crowned HE
New Holland HE
Diamond firetail
Grey shrike-thrush
Emu
Grey Currawong
Silvereye
White-throated treecreeper
Black-shouldered kite
GilbertAs whistler
Common bronzewing
Brown falcon
Sanctuary Nature walk (LDNP):
Mallefowl
Ringneck parrot
White-eared HE
Weebill
Variegated fairy-wren
White-winged chough
Kiata Campground (LDNP):
White-fronted HE
Peaceful dove
Hooded Robin
Dusky woodswallow
Australian raven
Black-tailed native hen
White-necked heron
Black-fronted dotterel
Pacific black duck
Spotted pardalote
Sacred kingfisher
Southern boobook
Sunday:
Ballarat:
Rock dove
Blackbird
Road to Clunes
RichardAs pipit
Goldfinch
Mt Beckworth:
Red-browed finch
Whistling kite
Wood duck
Fuscous HE
Striated pardalote
White-naped HE
Little eagle
Golden whistler
Scarlet robin
Yellow-faced HE
Skylark
Road to Brisbane Ranges NP:
White ibis
Yellow-tailed black cockatoo
Crimson rosella
Brisbane Ranges NP:
White-browed scrubwren
Black swan
Grey fantail
Brown thornbill
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Yellow-tufted HE
Rufous whistler
Brown goshawk
Werribee (Western Treatment Plant):
Common myna
Little pied cormorant
Dusky moorhen
Little raven
Whiskered tern
Fairy martin
Chestnut teal
Red-necked stint
Aust. pelican
Golden-headed cisticola
Curlew sandpiper
Common greenshank
Aust. Shoveler
Black-tailed godwit
Sharp-tailed sandpiper
Royal spoonbill
Little grassbird
Pied cormorant
Pied oystercatcher
Pacific gull
Crested tern
Clamorous reed warbler
Flemington-Parkville-Zoo area:
Song thrush
Tree sparrow
Aust. grebe
Spotted turtledove
Rainbow lorikeet
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