Hi all,
Here's how the Great Dowitcher Twitch went for me. I heard about it on
Monday and by 1600 I had arranged to go up with friends and we left my
place at 0430 Tuesday. After a frantic four-hour drive filled with the
excitement of seeing such a rare bird and the fear it had already left we
arrived at the lake.
Of course the sighting had to be filled with stress. We arrived at the
north end of the lake where it had been seen the day before and joined a
few people staring at a few common waders – no Dowitcher in sight!! Then a
phone call from the south end of the lake, the bird had been found – a mad
dash along the dirt track on top of an irrigation channel BUT, the bird had
flown, we "should have been there 10 minutes ago", that age old birding
curse.
A nervous group of birders, now about 14 people, huddled around scopes for
half an hour in the cold morning wind looking at where the bird had been
and willing it to emerge from behind a pelican or stilt. Another phone
call! The bird's at the north end! A convoy of 6 cars dash wildly back
along the irrigation channel and stop, people fall out of cars and creep
toward a small group peering into scopes. There it is, a sigh of relief
from all and lots of relieved laughter. Quite the mega-twitch.
To finish the day off we pulled into a small dust track beside the river at
Kerang and there we found a small family of Grey-crowned Babblers, a bird
rarely seen anywhere near Kerang, a real surprise.
cheers
Jenny
http://jenniferspryausbirding.blogspot.com.au/
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