And at the Geelong Field Naturalists Club Bird Group meeting on Tuesday,
Bob and Lorraine Preston reported that they had seen a Little Bittern at
the Belmont Common on 22 January. It was in the reeds in the pond (rapidly
drying swamp) next to the Golf Club carpark and flew up into a melaleuca.
As far as I know noone else has seen it, it is not a tourist attraction
like the one in Ballarat last year. Yet.
Margaret
At 02:34 PM 22/02/01 +1100, Tim Dolby wrote:
After giving a talk at Deakin University Library I decided to pay Belmont
Common a visit (on recommendation from Margaret and Russell), and was not
disappointed. The list is similar to Russell's earlier posting, with the
highlights being: Spotless Crake (1), Spotted Crake (1), Ballion's Crake
(3), Buff-banded Rail, and plenty of Latham's Snipe (25+) many of which
were in the grasslands around the common. There were also half a dozen
Purple-crowned Lorikeet in the surrounding gums. Oh... and a fox in the
reeds and a stolen car next to the hide.
If you are interested in going to the common I would go soon. Most of the
mud flat area is drying up - so the crake may be forced on. (I'm not sure
of the ecological 'behavior' of this swamp - so I may be wrong?) I did
take my lunch Russell - not a pretty site! Imagine a birdwatcher stuffing
his face with sandwiches while continuing to look through his binocs.
On the way back from Geelong I also dropped into the Point Cook wetland
bird hide - some nice birds: a hundred or so Chestnut-breasted Shelduck
(100+), Shovellor (10) , Hardhead (20), and few waders including a single
Black-tailed Godwit (with slight rufous coloring), Curlew Sandpiper (5),
Common Greenshank (1), and plenty of Black-winged Stilt.
Not a bad day on the "road to Geelong".
(Also FYI - came across http://www.mediatec.it/wwf/photogal.htm for a good
online bird photo gallery - linked to the WWF.)
Tim
Tim Dolby
RMIT Publishing - RMIT University
Phone: (03) 9925 8271
Fax: (03) 9925 8134
http://www.rmitpublishing.com.au
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