Hello
Some of you may or may not have been aware that this was going to be my last
twitchathon as a Western Whistler & I had thought at the beginning it was
possible for some records to tumble.
I will just put some ups & downs & Steve as usual will put out a report later.
Highlights
Laying in a bush early Saturday morning on a recce looking straight at a Noisy
Scrubbird as he called & called. A Wonderful clever bird.
2 Barn Owls - our bogey bird. So pleased to see them finally.
3 Birds not on a twitch before , Barn Owl ,Little Bittern & White Backed
Swallow. ( so over 5 years a grand total of 211 species ).
3 Masked Lapwings now at Kalgan , maybe they have bred.
Juv White Bellied Sea Eagle doing a great impression of a Bustard walking thru
a Paddock. We skidded to a halt hoping for at least a chance of a Bustard for
best bird.
The Night birding was excellent a clean sweep & also getting 6 waders & one
duck in the night at Wagin. My favourite moment of the twitch. Also never
thought I would actually be pleased to have a balaclava in Western Australia.
Having a 20 min kip wearing it as it was about 6 degs ( felt colder ) at
Dryandra & then be woken by Steve as the Masked Owl called flying over the
fields.
My first Brush Tailed Phascogale.
Excellent views of Crested Shrike Tit again.
We were behind at every stage of our route ( bar nightbirds ) compared to the
last 2 years so we decided once we left Wearne Road that it was Boom or Bust
time & we decided to head towards the City Lakes Monger, Herdsman & Claremont &
leave out Bibra ,Yangebup & Ellis Brook. And I can see why some of you guys go
to this lakes even with the traffic you can build up numbers with ease. We
ticked off more than expected ( but no Freckled Duck ).
Having nearly 2 locations for every species & having all the recce work pay off.
McClarty for being the saviour at the end.
Breaking our record by 1 & finishing with 183.
Downs
On the Friday night recce for Night birds taking two out of state visitors with
us & dipping all 6, Weather was poor but not even a call & looking like a
couple of twats.
Hitting 2 Roo's at one time & sadly killing them, Very sad in fact. Causing a
bit of a delay.
No Black Shouldered Kites again or Little Eagle.
Also Dipping both Godwits
Dipping Painted Button Quail especially after finding a male & 4 young a couple
of days previous.
No Turnstones at Woodman Point
Not having enough time to go to Len Howard for the Ruff ( after finding it &
then checking every couple of days ) as we run short of time for McClarty.
Nairns was awful ,only thing there were Silver Gulls.
Not being able to tick the Pheasant haha
Any way big thanks go to Steve with putting up with me for 5 years.
John for organising this fantastic event.
Ruff Knights for being very hard fanatical opponents.
Other competitors Robyn, Alan, Nick & Wes for being such nice people.
My Kids finished their local twitch with 26 by pedalling around the local parks
& they are my future now.
Cheers
From: John Graff
Sent: Tuesday, 16 December 2014 8:50 AM
To: John Graff
Cc: ; Birding-Aus
Subject: WA Twitchathon preliminary results
Hi all,
Apologies for the delay, I returned from the field late yesterday afternoon.
I'm still waiting to find out one team's score from the Armchair competition,
but as there are starting to be queries about results, here are the current
preliminary results:
24 HOUR
183 - Western Whistlers
180 - The Ruff Knights
156 - S. W. A. T.
130 - Stark Raven Mad
127 - The Rainbow Avocets
12 HOUR
130 - Once Bittern
123 - Hunters & Collectors
100 - 12hr Stints
80 - Peeping Pardalotes
55 - Weebill Rock You (early withdrawal due to illness)
Armchair
75 - Blue and White Hoopoes
44 - Lazy Old Bustards
Pending - O.B.E. Team
The final full results, including best sighting and worst dip, will be out in
the next couple of weeks (probably after Christmas) and presentations will be
made at the January BirdLife WA meeting. Thanks again to everyone who
participated, and hopefully everyone had a fairly enjoyable weekend!
Cheers,
John
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