Wandering Dutchman meets a crake-quake

After the You Yangs it was off to the Western Treatment Plant at Werribee for lunch and a good dose of birds. We stayed until dark getting about 60 species of birds but special highlights included ...

• The sheer number of duck species and ducks numbering into the thousands. Pacific Black, Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal, Australian Shelduck, Australian Shoveler, Pink-eared Duck, Hardhead, Australian Wood Duck, Freckled Duck, Blue-billed Duck and Musk Duck.
• A Peregrine Falcon seeing off a Swamp Harrier.

Not the best photo ever taken of a Peregrine Falcon but somehow,
for these two pictures, the camera was set to shutter priority at 1/400 sec.
Way too slow for the action.

• A fabulous flyby close-up of an immature and moulting Brown Falcon.

• The setting sun throwing beautiful colours on the ponds and paddocks.

Towards sunset, we drove to the Crake Pond, an area where three species of crake had been seen over the last few weeks. We stationed ourselves on the sunset side to the pond with excellent views of the reeds about 30 metres or so away. We spotted a Baillon's Crake [lifetick x 2]. After a little while, we decided to drive around to the other side of the reeds and see what was going on there. Around we went. We parked by the reeds which were much closer than the other side, about 2 metres away! But to the east [the reeds were to the west into the setting sun] was a pond with a heap of birds on it. Swans, White- and Straw-necked Ibis, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, Curlew Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints, Common Greenshank [identified by Robert as we approached from their calls -- a common species in The Netherlands] and Marsh Sandpiper, a small version the Common Greenshank with a needle thin beak.

Marsh Sandpiper and Common Greenshank

So we "oo-ed" and "aah-ed" over the birds and open and closed the car door getting the scopes and the bird guides out and generally forgetting about the crakes behind us on the other side of the road. Once finished, we turned around and had a look at the reeds and there was, not one, not two but three species of crake, unconcernedly going about their business within five metres of the car and where we were standing. Australian Spotted Crake, Spotless Crake and Baillon's Crake. Just amazing. Three life ticks for Robert and one for myself. What a day.

Baillon's Crake

Australian Spotted Crake

The Spotless Crake was just a bit too quick and dark for our cameras.

So as darkness enveloped us we set off for Drouin and home having done about 900 kms in the first two days of Robert's stay!

Wandering Dutchman meets Australian Owlet-Nightjar during the day

The morning after the gannet-fest saw us in the You Yangs, north of Geelong. We went on a couple of walks and turned up some life ticks.

I kept saying to Robert as we walked past every tree with dead branches and hollows that it was ideal territory for an Australian Owlet-nightjar. My reasoning was that the Complete Compact Edition of Morcombe says, "especially in the arid interior ... even the smallest stand of trees seems to have its resident Owlet-nightjars." How could I lose? Well, we flushed one from a hollow and it allowed close-isn examination for five minutes or more. I think we were privileged to see one out in the open during the day. Robert -- lifetick.

This Common Bronzewing was nice. They are a very wary bird, usually zooting off at the first hint of trouble. This is a male.

Speckled Warbler [lifetick x 2] was next bird to be seen. He sat up very nicely for a photo-opportunity.

Right next to the Speckled Warbler was a Buff-rumped Thornbill. The buff rump is not obvious in the photo but we did see it fly a few times to view the "buff rump" and the colouring and white eye clinch the identification. Lifelike x 2.

Galahs are always a delight to see and this quintet contrasting against the greys of the eucs were lovely.

Next stop Werribee. The world-famous, "it has to be on my trip list" Western Treatment Plant.

Wandering Dutchman meets Cape Gannet

Parks Victoria do an "Open Day" into the gannet colony at Point Danger once a year for anyone to go but especially for the Portland locals to see the only gannet colony on mainland Australia. Just a few kilometres to the south is the Lawrence Rocks Conservation Reserve where many thousands of Australian Gannets call home. About 4-500 gannets live on the mainland on the top of the cliff overlooking Bass Strait and Lawrence Rocks.

The mainland gannet colony with Lawrence Rocks in the distance

A small crowd of about 25 gathered at the end of the road by the fence. This is the first line of defence for the colony.

We walked about 100 metres to the very edge of the colony separated from us by an electrified fence whose main aim is to deter foxes. You could almost touch them.

Melissa gave us an excellent talk about the gannets. She is highly experienced with them and has spent time with Cape Gannet colonies in South Africa. Over there they have just a few Australasian Gannets in the colonies and over here we have, in the mainland population, just one breeding pair of Cape Gannets. They have a well grown chick which may be big enough to fledge. I recall it takes 100 days before fledging. Last year's Cape chick failed to fledge. Whilst we were there, a single adult Cape raucously landed [their calls are different] thus there are at least 3 Cape Gannets in this population of Australian Gannets.

These birds are just beautiful with lovely clean lines of black and white plus the grey beaks and "buff-washed head" Pizzey & Knight.

The differences between the two species are obvious but hard to spot when there are hundreds of heads moving every which way or resting tucked in or preening. The Australian Gannet has a dark iris. The iris of the Cape Gannet is much lighter, almost the colour of the orbital ring of pale china-blue.

The bird at the back left is the Cape with the pale china-blue eye
whilst the other two have the dark iris.

The bird sitting to the right is the Cape Gannet.

The other difference is the length of the black gular [throat] stripe. The Aussie has a short stripe and the Cape has a strip extending a fair way down the ventral surface of the neck.

Australasian Gannet

Cape Gannet

Cape Gannet

Whichever species you are looking at, these birds are just superb flyers. Once they have fledged they spend the first five years of their life flying around the lower southern latitudes of the earth before ending up back at their birthplace - mostly. I guess the occasional one becomes disoriented and finishes in the wrong spot. Hence our Capes are here and not in South Africa.

Earlier in the day Robert and I went for a walk before breakfast down to the Portland pier. This Masked Lapwing must think he is the missing Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.

Two koalas were spotted plus a Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo with breakfast and a small flock of Musk Lorikeets amongst the plethora of Rainbow Lorikeets.

At the gannet-fest, we heard that a Nankeen Kestrel has a favourite perch in the town itself overlooking the bay.