Weekends away

Forster

Much excitement in the birding community a couple of weeks back when a strange Dowitcher showed up on the shores of a remote lake in Victoria. After much debate the bird was identified as the first ever Australian record of a Long-billed Dowitcher all the way from the USA. I like a bit of a road trip and so Emily arranged a half-day off on the Friday and we were all set to go. The bird then disappeared. No sightings on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday morning and a decision had to be made. I like a road trip but 900 km each way and the chance of a no-show forced a rapid change of plans and instead we headed north up the coast to Forster.

Hunting for Fruit Doves

We had a smashing weekend spent fishing and searching for Fruit Doves in the rainforest and while that search proved fruit(dove)less we did find a few Land Mullets on the forest floor. The Land Mullet is a huge black skink and always good to see.

Bengal Sergeant

Stripey

Back in Forster the dolphins were playing in the harbour mouth but any thoughts of joining them for a swim were extinguished as we sat on a jetty for a bit of fishing and a decent sized shark swam under us. Not sure what type it would have been but Bull Shark sprang to my mind. No decent sized fish to be caught however as our bait was attacked by hordes of little things the minute it hit the water. Emily managed to pull out an impressive little selection though. Forster is far enough north that the fish and the birds are a bit different to Sydney so even the annoying little fish were mostly new to me and the Scaly-breasted Lorikeets made a nice change to the Rainbow variety that swarm round us at home.

Gunther's Wrasse

Weeping Toadfish

When we returned to Sydney on Sunday night I discovered that the Dowitcher had been back at the lake all weekend after all! Gutted!

Lake Tutchewop

Happily the bird was then seen every day for the following week despite the lake apparently drying up so the next Friday evening I went for it. Turning up at the lake on the Saturday morning I started checking the small flocks of waders around the shoreline and after a bit of a hike and falling in a swamp I literally stumbled across a group of fellow twitchers who already had the bird in their sights. And so I ticked that Long-billed Dowitcher #451 before heading off to an area of farmland relatively close by which is reported to hold a population of feral Ostrich. No joy on that front but a successful twitch nonetheless.

The great Ostrich hunt

Not an Ostrich