Western Treatment Plant

Today I had the pleasure of participating in a Melbourne Birdlife Photography outing to the Western Treatment Plant. I arrived early while it was still quite dark so I bumped the ISO up to 800 to give me at least some semblance of a chance of catching a few birds.

This immature Black Kite cooperated nicely, staying on on the branch of a dead tree long enough for me to park about a hundred or so metres up the road and walk back under cover of the roadside vegetation.

Black Kite (immature), Beach Road Avalon
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/5.6 1/250

There were a lot of Zebra Finches in the roadside vegetation but they were considerably less cooperative than the Kite, flitting from branch to branch and flying between trees in almost continuous motion. Combined with the low light, it was tough to get any great shots but these cheeky little birds are great to just watch.

Zebra Finch (immature), Beach Road, Avalon
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/5.6 1/125

Zebra Finch (adult male), Beach Road, Avalon
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/5.6 1/320

Lake Borrie and the coastal ponds had all the usual suspects: ducks, cormorants, pelicans and the beach sand and mud flats had gulls and a few terns but these were mostly too far away for any good shots.

When we reached the bird hide, two Australian Spotted Crakes turned on a show, wandering around the mud bank on one of the nearby ponds, seemingly oblivious of the wall of photographers.

Australian Spotted Crake, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 400, f/5.6 1/500

Returning back along the coast road, we spotted a group of White-winged Black Terns on a log in one of the ponds right beside the road. I've only ever seen these birds on distant rocks offshore so it was a thrill to see so many so close. The non-breeding plumage of these birds is nothing like the breeding plumage for which they are named so its somewhat confusing to separate these birds from the other 'grey-winged white terns' we see more commonly. The characteristic black patch curving around behind the eye was easily seen here though.

White-Winged Black Tern, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/640

White-Winged Black Tern, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/400

The real highlight for the day was finding two Pectoral Sandpipers among the Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Red-necked Stints in the pond back near the Beach Road gate. The Pectoral Sandpiper is the one in the middle of this shot with the heavily streaked chest with the sharp cut-off to the white breast.

Pectoral Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/200

Pectoral Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/200

Pectoral Sandpiper, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/400

Pectoral Sandpiper, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/5.6 1/640

The stints also put on a bit of a show, congregating on rocks in the middle of the pond.

Red-necked Stint, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/400

Late in the afternoon in rapidly falling light and with an oncoming storm, two of us headed for the Borrow Pits at the far east of the Plant where we found dozens of Red-necked Avocets and Marsh Sandpipers.

Red-necked Avocet, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 1600, f/8 1/800 

Marsh Sandpiper, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO1600, f/11 1/200

and thousands of Red-necked Stints and Curlew Sandpipers

Red-necked Stint, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 800, f/11 1/200

which were spectacular when they took off in flight. I didn't have time to change the settings on the camera to enable a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the birds but decided that slow shutter speed and panning would work to capture recognisable birds but with blurred wings giving the feeling of motion

Red-necked Stint + Curlew Sandpiper, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 1600, f/16 1/50

and, just for the heck of it, I tried a few shots with less panning, blurring the birds even more.

Red-necked Stint + Curlew Sandpiper, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 x2 adaptor, ISO 1600, f/16 1/50

...and John managed to find an Eastern Blue-tongued Lizard and corral it by the side of the road until I caught up to him after locking a gate. 

Eastern Blue-tongued Lizard, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-5, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 107.5mm, ISO 400 f/8 1/80

Eastern Blue-tongued Lizard, Western Treatment Plant
Pentax K-5, Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 100mm, ISO 400 f/8 1/100

Birds of the Thousandth Day

Today marks 1000 days since I started this blog so I was keen to add something special. Fortunately, the day had already been booked for a trip to the Western Treatment Plant with the Melbourne Photography Group from BirdLife Australia, always a great bunch of people with whom to spend a day in the field.

The weather forecast was for a cool and windy day with a light showers, which turned out to be accurate, but this didn't deter our intrepid bunch. We started at Paradise Road ponds as there have been recent reports of a Northern Shoveler sighted here. The Northern Shoveler is a northern hemisphere bird that migrates to Africa, India and SE Asia during the northern winter. Occasionally a few birds seem to miss the off ramp and end up in southern Australia. With no sign of the Northern Shoveler, we moved to Walsh's Lagoon. There were plenty of birds present including several species of raptor, large flocks of Australian Pelican, Pink-eared Duck, Red-necked Avocet, two species of stilts and a lot of Australian Shovelers but no Northern Shoveler so we drove on to the Borrow Pits for lunch. This proved fruitful for photographing avocets and stilts that were close to shore and seemed unperturbed by the many photographers pointing lenses at them. I was happy to be able to capture all three species in one image:

Red-necked Avocet, Banded Stilt, Black-winged Stilt, Western Treatment Plant

as well as a solo Banded Stilt in flight

Banded Stilt, Western Treatment Plant

and I finally managed to photograph a Spotted Harrier! I have been chasing this species at the WTP for a long time now and never managed to catch one close enough for a photograph. This one is not the greatest but happy to finally record it on camera.

Spotted Harrier, Western Treatment Plant

Just as we were settling in for a longer shoot here, we got the call that the Northern Shoveler had been spotted back at Paradise Road ponds, so we saddled up and headed back there. As could be expected, the bird was in the middle of the large pond so could only be seen at a long distance but I did manage to get a record shot (albeit a very tight crop at long distance) for a positive ID on this male bird.

Northern Shoveler (male) with Australian Shoveler (male), Western Treatment Plant

While back at Paradise Road, I also managed to get a shot of a small flock of Pink-eared Ducks (which were in greater numbers at the plant than I've seen before).

Pink-eared Duck, Western Treatment Plant

While there, a large bird of prey flew overhead disturbing the flock of Red-necked Avocets and Banded Stilts:

Red-necked Avocet, Banded Stilt, Western Treatment Plant

Last stop was the Lake Borrie outlet where the incoming tide made it easy to capture the Red-necked Stints feeding on the mudflats.

Red-necked Stint, Western Treatment Plant

Other birds were also making the most of the feeding opportunities in the outlet creek

Hoary-headed Grebe, Western Treatment Plant

Australian Spotted Crake, Western Treatment Plant

So, very happy to celebrate the 1000th day with a lifetime tick with the Northern Shoveler and add Spotted Harrier as the 200th Australian bird species on this blog :-)

Begola Wetlands

Begola Wetlands is a remnant of the once more extensive wetlands that ran behind the dunes of Ocean Grove and Pt Lonsdale to Swan Bay (see map). It contains a shallow lake that dries out in most summers and is a haven for waterbirds that feed in shallow water or mud. The recent hot, dry weather has dried up most of the lake leaving extensive mudbanks that have attracted a large number of birds. 

Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

I spent an hour walking around the wetlands this evening as the sun was setting and saw 25 species:

• Pacific Black Duck
• Grey Teal
• Chestnut Teal
• Australasian Grebe
• Purple Swamphen
• Dusky Moorhen
• Eurasian Coot
• Australian Spotted Crake
• Masked Lapwing
• Nankeen Night-Heron
• Australian White Ibis
• Royal Spoonbill
• Silver Gull
• Latham's Snipe
• Black-fronted Dotterel
• Rock Dove
• Spotted Dove
• New Holland Honeyeater
• Australian Magpie
• Magpie-lark
• Willie Wagtail
• Superb Fairy-wren
• Common Starling
• Little Raven
• Welcome Swallow

I'm not a great list keeper but I cannot remember seeing this many species here in a single visit before. 

With the receding water, most of the birds were in the central part of the lake, 50-100 metres away, so were not the best photographic subjects but I managed to capture a few (mostly cropped quite heavily).

Masked Lapwing, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Australian Spotted Crake, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Black-fronted Dotterel, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Chestnut Teal, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Grey Teal, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Nankeen Night-Heron, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Royal Spoonbill, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

I counted at least 6 Latham's Snipe, all out in the open, feeding and preening on the mudflats. Snipe are usually quite secretive so it was great to see them so clearly and manage to photograph some, albeit from a long distance.

Some were heavily camouflaged among the weeds in the mud

Latham's Snipe, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

Others were up and about, feeding

Latham's Snipe, Begola Wetlands, Ocean Grove

While this one shared a bath with a Chestnut Teal, closely observed by a Dusky Moorhen

Jerringot Wetlands and Hospital Swamp

A quick trip out this morning to Jerringot Wetlands (in Belmont Common, Geelong) and Hospital Swamp in search of crakes and snipe.

The bird hide at Jerringot proved to be the "spot" for crakes with both Spotless and Australian Spotted Crakes present. They were really difficult to photograph with the backlighting and reeds but I got at least a few record shots:

Spotless Crake, Jerringot Wetlands

Australian Spotted Crake, Jerringot Wetlands

The ubiquitous Purple Swamphens were everywhere (as usual)

Purple Swamphen, Jerringot Wetlands

and a pair Pacific Black Ducks cruised about closeby, one pausing for a quick splash.

Pacific Black Duck, Jerringot Wetlands

Several small birds including Superb Fairy Wren and Australian Reed Warbler flitted about the reeds but the only one that I was able to capture was this Little Grassbird.

Little Grassbird, Jerringot Wetlands

Meanwhile, several White-faced Herons were playing musical chairs with the nesting boxes

White-faced Heron, Jerringot Wetlands

I did spot one Latham's Snipe (the main target for the morning), flushed from reeds close to the road when a cyclist stopped for a look but it disappeared back into the reeds so no photographs :-(

So, on to Hospital Swamp

Black-winged Stilts, Hospital Swamp

where the closest encounter I had was with a pair of Red-kneed Dotterels

Red-kneed Dotterel, Hospital Swamp

So, I dipped on the snipe but a good excuse to keep trying :-)