birding-aus

Birding Eastlink

To: "Paul Dodd" <>, <>
Subject: Birding Eastlink
From: "Steve Creber" <>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2008 08:38:51 +1000
They could have been Cattle Egrets. I've seen them in that part of the
world recently.

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Paul Dodd
Sent: Sunday, 29 June 2008 7:44 PM
To: 
Subject: Birding Eastlink

The new Eastlink toll road was opened in Melbourne today, so I drove
along
it from Mitchum to Frankston this afternoon. Traffic was heavy, as
people
(like me) tried out the road. I think I saw the first accident too, when
one
car ran into the back of another on the opposite lanes. I thought I'd
keep a
lookout for birds as I was driving along. I noticed a paddock full of
cows
near the Wellington Road crossing and amongst the cows were white birds
- I
initially thought that they were Cattle Egrets - the closest I'd seen to
the
city, but a couple of white birds flew over at about the same time,
White
Ibis - so I'd be pretty confident in saying the birds in the paddock
were
ibis too. The most surprising bird was a Kookaburra that flew across the
road and into a remnant copse of eucalypts near the Dandenong exits. The
other highlight was a Nankeen Kestrel hovering alongside the road in the
stretch between Dandenong and Frankston. Here's my full list:



Australian White Ibis

Straw-necked Ibis

Australian Wood Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Silver Gull

Nankeen Kestrel

Laughing Kookaburra

Red Wattlebird

Noisy Miner

Little Raven

Australian Magpie

Magpie Lark

Common Starling

Common Myna

House Sparrow (largish flock)



I can't be sure that the Ravens were Little, since I couldn't hear them
call, but they appeared to be the right size and they were hanging about
in
small groups. I thought that I'd miss out on Silver Gulls, since I
hadn't
seen any almost to the start of the Frankston freeway - but then I saw a
largish flock circling. The House Sparrows I'm not 100% sure about,
since
all I could see was a large flock of brown sparrow-sized birds taking
off
from a paddock (roughly where I saw the kestrel).



I came back along the road from Frankston, but spent more time looking
for
the exit I was after. I missed it, of course. And my Sat Nav doesn't
cover
the new road.



That's the total extent of my birding this weekend...



Paul Dodd

Docklands, Melbourne




Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
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Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.4.1/1512 - Release Date:
21/06/2008
9:27 AM

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