Yesterday Andrew Silcocks and I did our regular monthly survey of the
Edithvale Wetlands. On this occasion we had the assistance of Damien Cook,
Alison Kuiter & Johnny Loy. The extra eyes proved very advantageous as
several species recorded would otherwise have been missed. Most notably
AUSTRALIAN LITTLE BITTERNS. On the South, I flushed a juvenile without
seeing it but luckily Alison was so positioned that she saw it land in a
small clump of reeds. As we stood deciding how to further investigate, it
climbed a phragmites stem, then took flight landing in a large dense
phragmites stand. On the North, ~1 km away,
Andrew flushed an adult male, also without seeing it. Johnny, wading behind
him, called out enabling all three in that group to see it.
40 wetland dependent and 27 non-wetland dependent species were recorded.
In addition to the Little Bitterns, among those of greatest interest were 1
Australasian Bittern, 1 Intermediate Egret, 2 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Great
Crested Grebe, 8 Baillon's Crakes, 2 Spotless Crakes, only 1 Australian
Spotted Crake though many more seen five days ago, 9 Yellow-billed
Spoonbills, 4 Royal Spoonbills, 2 Nankeen Night-Herons, 260 Sharp-tailed
Sandpipers & 110 Black-winged Stilts.
Mike Carter
30 Canadian Bay Road
Mount Eliza VIC 3930
Tel (03) 9787 7136
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
