9 and 11 February 2017
By Philip Peel
A huge success this month with the Birdlife Melbourne Shorebird study and field trip taken by John Barkla. We headed to the Western Treatment Plant (WTP) on Saturday 11 February after an extensive and comprehensive beginner talk given by John on Thursday night in front of 50 odd participants.
At the WTP we had 49 attendees. Luckily we had the help of Dez Hughes, the ‘Wader Whisperer’. Together John and Dez ran a very successful field trip with most of the common/uncommon waders present on the day and with a few rare waders too.
We started at 9 am where we headed to the T-section ponds and we found two Black-tailed Godwits, two Double-banded Plovers, 10+ Common Greenshanks and a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Red-necked Stints. From here we went and checked out the Western lagoons where we found Marsh Sandpipers, Curlew Sandpiper and some Red-kneed Dotterel.
Our next stop was the Beach Road Rocks, here we stayed for the remainder of the day, with great views of the Red-necked Phalarope, Red Knot, one Terek Sandpiper that showed really well where we could get some nice shots, one Broad-billed Sandpiper that was tough to get on to, but most people were able too see it. Also, we had Common, Whiskered, White-winged, Crested, Little and Fairy Terns on the rocks.
A 17 car convoy cruised around the plant which was the largest I have seen, but was excellently controlled by John, and a huge thanks must go to John, Allison and Dez for putting in a huge effort today and finding all these birds for nearly everyone that attended. It’s tough and hard enough to point out to the person standing next you where to look for a specific bird but with almost 50 people all vying for prime position, this becomes increasingly hard and they did an extremely great job!
Since I have been involved with Birdlife Mlebourne this has been the most rewarding, productive and exciting outing I have attended; watching everyone learn new things, watching people’s excitement at seeing a rare wader and the sheer delight of gratitude that was showed to John at the end was very welcoming!
Here is my list from the day; thanks to Graeme for the lift there and to Karen for the drive home! 85 species seen was very cool! http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34289331
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