Early morning waders at Kirk Point and a day at the WTP

I was due to meet the Melbourne Birdlife Photography group for the monthly outing (this month at the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee). The night before, I checked the sunrise and tide times and weather predictions and all looked perfect for an early morning shoot at Kirk Point (just outside the treatment plant).

Check my YouTube channel for a video of today's shoot.

The rocks at Kirk Point are overnight roosting sites for many species of birds, including several species of migratory wading birds. As the tide rises, the rocks further from shore get inundated and the birds come closer and closer to shore. If you get there early enough (in this case I was there 30 minutes before sunrise) the birds will encroach much closer than you could approach them.

I was not disappointed. Hundreds of Red-necked Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, along with gulls, terns and cormorants, settled on the rocks just metres in front of my chosen perch on a rock on the beach and caught the orange glow of first light.

Red-necked Stint, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 100mm, ISO 800, 1/1250 @ f/6.3

The small migratory waders are due to take off on their long migration back to the arctic in the next few weeks so my attention was drawn to them.

Red-necked Stint, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 400mm, ISO 800, 1/1000 @ f/6.3

Red-necked Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 400mm, ISO 800, 1/1000 @ f/6.3

Red-necked Stint, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 280mm, ISO 400, 1/1000 @ f/6.3 

Several of the Curlew Sandpiper had started develop breeding plumage indicating an imminent departure north.

Red-necked Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 318mm, ISO 400, 1/1000 @ f/6.3

As the tide continued to rise, only cormorants (Pied Cormorant and Little Black Cormorant) remained on the outer rocks (and one gull lurking in the background)

Pied Cormorant and Little Black Cormorant, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 280mm, ISO 400, 1/800 @ f/6.3

while the waders took flight for alternative feeding and roosting locations.

Red-necked Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, Kirk Point, Point Wilson, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 280mm, ISO 400, 1/1250 @ f/6.3

The rest of the day was spent at the treatment plant in great company. It's always a thrill to take first time visitors to this spectacular birding location.

Lake Borrie, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 124mm, ISO 200, 1/500 @ f/6.3

I have never seen so many Pink-eared Duck at this location but they are always difficult to photograph on the wide-open waterways of the treatment plant. I did manage to 'sneak up' a little and shoot through the reeds.

Pink-eared Duck, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 280mm, ISO 400, 1/1250 @ f/6.3

Hundreds of Welcome Swallow and Fairy Martin were hunting insects around the bird hide and I managed to get a few good shots of the martins - normally a challenge as they are rarely still for more than a few seconds.

Fairy Martin, Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, 1/640 @ f/6.3

However, the main highlight of the day came late in the afternoon with this capture of a juvenile Lewin's Rail - my first photograph of this elusive species and first sighting in Victoria - two ticks with one bird :-)

Lewin's Rail (juvenile), Western Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Panasonic Lumix G9 with Panasonic Leica 100-400mm lens @ 400mm, ISO 400, 1/640 @ f/6.3

Happy days :-)

Tufted Duck - first sighting in Australia

It has been a (very) long time since I've posted something here but the sighting of a new vagrant species in Australia this week prompted me to get out and find the bird this morning. A male Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) was spotted at the Western Treatment Plant (WTP, aka "Werribee Sewerage Farm") earlier this week and it had the Australian twitching community all a flutter (pun intended). This was the first ever sighting of this species anywhere in Australia. So, camera gear and binoculars packed in the car, I picked up my son at 7am for the hour's drive to Werribee. We initially investigated the location at which the bird had been spotted on Wednesday but, while there were plenty of interesting birds, there were very few ducks and no sign of the foreigner.

Twitching (searching for new/rare bird species) at the WTP has some distinct advantages over other locations:
  1. LOTS of birders go there and when a new species is sighted you can guarantee you won't be alone,
  2. The country is VERY flat so you can see for kilometres,
the result of which is that when searching for a rarity, it's easier to look for the crowd of birders than to look for the bird.

As we were leaving our first location, a little disheartened, we spotted a collection of cars (yet to find a suitable collective noun) a couple of km away at another series of ponds. A few minutes later, we had joined the throng (below - the gap in the middle is where we had been) - binoculars, telescopes and long lenses pointed towards a flock of ducks (mostly Australian Shelduck) and a few grebes and coots clustered on the other side of a pond.

It only took a few minutes for the first call of "I've got it!" to rouse the gang into cries of:
"Where?"
"You see the last hangar...just below the right hand side of that"
"You mean near the pile of dirt?"
"Yes, just near the those swans close to the bank"
"Wait, I see it, no, it's just dived..."

My 300mm lens was never going to be sufficient to see the bird clearly so I added both 2x and 1.4x tele-converters to my Pentax K-3 (crop factor of 1.5) giving me a virtual focal length of 1260mm. Even then, the bird was not much more than a blur in the distance.

Tufted Duck (centre of photograph near the grassy bank) with Australian Shelduck and Eurasian Coot
Pentax K-3, Sigma 300mm f/2.8 lens x2 and x1.4 adapters, 1/125 sec @ f/12.5

Fortunately, video is more forgiving of having so much extra glass and I (unusually) had the foresight to switch to video for a few seconds, capturing the bird preening and wing-flapping.

I'm not sure how many species that is for me now in Australia (I'm not a fanatical counter/ticker) but it's always great to find such a rarity and very happy that it's my 300th bird in Australia on this blog.

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

Day 1 of Spring at the WTP

Day 1 of spring and I had not been to the Western Treatment Plant for a while so headed there to see what was about. It was very quiet. Very few waders were present in the usual places, due, I suspect, to a combination of high winds and very full ponds, though I did see several small flocks huddled on the outer sand banks at The Spit.

There was the odd surprise with appearance of solo egrets and herons

Eastern Great Egret, Lake Borrie Coastal Road, Western Treatment Plant

Little Egret, Little River Causeway, Western Treatment Plant 

White-necked Heron, 145WA Lagoon, Western Treatment Plant

The usual pelicans, swans and cormorants that frequent Lake Borrie were missing today but some had opted for the more sheltered shore of Port Phillip Bay

Pied Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Silver Gull, Western Treatment Plant

Australian Pelican, Pied Cormorant, Western Treatment Plant

Black Swan, Western Treatment Plant

Little Black Cormorant, Western Treatment Plant

and some of the pelicans put on a formation flying display

Australian Pelican, Western Treatment Plant

Several White-fronted Chats darted about on the beach and shrubs

White-fronted Chat (male), Western Treatment Plant

The last bit of excitement was the first snake for the year as this Tiger Snake crossed the road just in front of the car but slowly enough for me to get out and snap one shot.

Tiger Snake, Western Treatment Plant

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 :-)