G'day,
Today a friend and I, plus three of our four kids, undertook the 8 hour Vic
Twitchathon, first time for me, after a few 24 hour events in the past.
We drove from Pyramid Hill towards our starting point near Cohuna early this
morning, all geared up and ready to do battle !
Whilst passing Mount Hope ( east of Pyramid Hill ) I noticed a bird sitting in
a farely bare paddock on the north side of the road. It didn't fit any regular
species at a 100kms an hour so I turned around to go back and have a second
look. Good job I did as it was a Grey Falcon, less than 100metres from the
road, just sitting in the paddock !! We had excellent views in good light
through a scope etc. The bird had some browner feathering and paler edges to
some of its upperparts, perhaps suggesting a younger bird, but had a bright
yellow cere and legs. To say we were gobsmacked is an understatement. It was
wary of us and took a few short flights over the ploughed ground .
There was only one thing for it. The 8 hour race started early ! First bird
on the list Grey Falcon :-) We couldn't have had better views, but the race
had now begun so we moved on after a few minutes.
We had an extra 20 minutes or so driving because of it, but well, there really
wasn't any other option !.
We had a great run for our 8 hours, with every stop producing more ticks. The
lack of wetlands was an issue. Two of our 4 wetlands had recent inflows
filling them, so no muddy edges. And another had dried with most birds
leaving, but some great bush birding made up for it and we finished with 136
birds.
Feral Pigeon and Cockatiel fell after the clock stopped on the way home.
Hope everyone else had a great time, we certainly did .
Simon Starr.
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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