?
Hi all,
I was fortunate enough to be present for the early showing - and what a
showing! A group of us arrived at around 5.20pm, parking near the sign on the
Spit Track. We got our gear together, had a chat to a few others, and then
headed west along the track to get ready for the bird (there would have been
about 10-12 in the group by this stage). We stopped about 150m past the
western end of the fence, and stood facing the spit lagoon. One of the group
walked a bit further west for a toilet stop. As he finished and turned around
to head back to the group, the owl took to the air - and we were all looking
pretty much straight at it! It took off towards the water from the edge of the
shorter 'grass' on the north side of the saltmarsh plants (i.e. between the
track and the saltmarsh plants). It defecated as it flew, rising quickly to
about 20-30m high. It flew out just over the water, then circled back TOWARDS
us, flying at a height of about 15-20m, only about 30m in front of us. It was
perfectly lit by the setting sun - still in full light. We obtained
magnificent views of all the features - foot projection, buff colouration on
the breast and flanks, dark feathering at the top of the facial disc, and dark
tipped and barred primaries. You really couldn't ask for better flight views.
It then flew further to the west, going down in the saltmarsh just off the
south-west corner of the track, from where it emerged at around 6.20pm for the
second viewing. I can only reiterate Rohan's comments from the other day -
congrats to John and Sue O'Malley for the first report of the bird.
The only sour note for the twitch - my camera was sitting neatly in my study at
home!! Such is life.
Cheers, and good luck to those still to get it,
Dean
________________________________
From: on behalf of Russell Woodford
Sent: Tue 15/08/2006 7:29 PM
To:
Subject: Grass Owl at WTP
Hi all
The Grass Owl did two shows at Werribee tonight - a matinee performance at 5.30
pm then it's usual evening one at just after 6.20.
I feel a bit of an imposter getting this message in early because we just
turned up, waited for a few minutes, and then watched the owl do a bit of a
circuit. Probably the easiest twitch you could imagine - only 15 minutes from
home, zero effort, and someone else had a light to help pick out the bird more
clearly for the assembled photographers.
Hopefully someone who saw the early show will describe it for the list -
apparently it showed clearly in very good light. It was certainly remarkably
close and easy to see at 6.20 when there were about 26 people in the audience.
Cheers
Russell
---
Russell Woodford
Learning Technologies Coordinator
Sacred Heart College Geelong
http://web.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/music/auralonline.html
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