Wednesday 24 January 2018

#66 and #67 around Altona, Victoria, Australia, January 25 2018

We spent some time around Altona today and I managed a few sneaky photos along the way!

#66 White-faced Heron

#67 Singing Honeyeater
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#63 to #65 in the backyard, Kealba, Victoria, Australia, January 24 2018

I spend a few minutes in the backyard with the camera this afternoon photographing a few feral species that frequent this area...

#63 Eurasian Tree Sparrow

#64 House Sparrow

#65 Common Myna
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Tuesday 9 January 2018

#60 and #61 at Taylors Lakes, Victoria, Australia, January 9 2018

I took the kids to a local playground today, and managed to find a few seconds to get some photos of two common birds for the year list.

#60 Dusky Moorhen

#61 Crested Pigeon
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Tuesday 2 January 2018

#57 to #60 at Woodlands Historic Park, Victoria, Australia, January 3 2018

I go to Woodlands Historic Park at least once a week. It's close to home, and it's the best place nearby for both macro photography (http://2018insectphotos.blogspot.com.au) and birds. At this time of the year I'm usually more focused on finding insects, but there were a few birds around to photograph for the year list as well.

#57 White-winged Chough

#58 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

#59 White-plumed Honeyeater
After visiting Woodlands Historic Park, I paid a quick visit to the Greenvale Reservoir Park where I found some Australian Wood Ducks for the year list.


#60 Australian Wood Duck
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Monday 1 January 2018

A big day to start the year at the Western Treatment Plant and Serendip Sanctuary, VIctoria, Australia, January 1 2018

Every year on the 1st of January, many birders around the world go out to find as many birds as possible to start the year off with a bang. For four years in a row now I have embarked on a 'big day' on New Year's Day, each time with a different goal and focus. This year I wanted to try and photograph as many birds as I could.

The day started quite well, although it's the latest start to a New Year's Day birding outing that I have ever had - this year I got out of bed at the quite reasonable 6:30am! I made my way to the Western Treatment Plant and proceeded to the T-section ponds to look for a Pectoral Sandpiper that had been regularly seen there over the past few weeks. After a bit of a search I managed to find it, and got some average but reasonable photos.

I spent quite a lot of time in the T-section, and photographed as much as I could. I got lucky and saw a Spotless Crake, but it was too fast and flighty for a photograph. I did manage to find and photograph a few nice birds, including Australian Crake, Baillon's Crake, and a pair of Brolga

I moved on to the Western Lagoons where I picked up a few more photos, and then through to Beach Road where there wasn't much at all. I found a lot of duck species to photograph in the restricted section and also around Lake Borrie, and finished up at the Beach Road rocks where I found a few species of term, but very, very few roosting waders.

It was lunch time and I decided to move on from the Treatment Plant. I had found 77 species and photographed 51 of them. Actually, I photographed more, but the photos were pretty much unusable as anything even slightly distant was severely affected by heat haze.

After eating, I headed to Serendip Sanctuary, where I managed to pick up a few more species. I planned to stay longer and then go to the You Yangs and find even more birds, but unfortunately I had filled the memory card and couldn't take any more photos. I usually bring a spare, but I had accidently left it at home. A reasonable day's effort, in the end I saw 85 and photographed 56 in about 6 hours worth of birding.

For the rest of the year, I will be doing a very casual photographic year list. No racing around to find as much as I can. Just photographing what's there wherever I happen to be. 

#1 - #51 - Western Treatment Plant - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41485396

#1 Brown Falcon

#2 Pectoral Sandpiper

#3 Pied Stilt

#4 Royal Spoonbill

#5 Yellow-billed Spoonbill

#6 Australian White Ibis

#7 Great Egret

#8 Black Swan

#9 Australasian Grebe

#10 Red-capped Plover

#11 White-winged Tern

#12 Marsh Sandpiper

#13 Golden-headed Cisticola

#14 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

#15 Australian Spotted Crake

#16 Baillon's Crake

#17 Little Black Cormorant

#18 Brolga

#19 Welcome Sallow

#20 Superb Fairy-wren

#21 Common Greenshank

#22 Little Egret

#23 Eurasian Coot

#24 Pacific Black Duck

#25 Hoary-headed Grebe

#26 Eurasian Skylark

#27 Black-shouldered Kite

#28 Fairy Martin

#29 Australian Pied Oystercatcher

#30 Whiskered Tern

#31 Little Pied Cormorant

#32 Pink-eared Duck

#33 Australasian Swamphen

#34 Chestnut Teal

#35 Blue-billed Duck

#36 Australian Magpie

#37 Hardhead

#38 Masked Lapwing

#39 Australian Shoveler

#40 Magpie-lark

#41 Grey Teal

#42 Australian Shelduck

#43 Straw-necked Ibis

#44 Little Raven

#45 White-fronted Chat

#46 Australian Pelican

#47 Curlew Sandpiper

#48 Crested Tern

#49 Silver Gull

#50 Red-necked Stint

#51 Common Tern
#52 - #56 - Serendip Sanctuary - http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41487184

#52 Red Wattlebird

#53 Willie-wagtail

#54 Magpie Goose

#55 Red-kneed Dotterel

#56 Black-fronted Dotterel

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I enjoyed doing this VERY casual year. I posted images of my 'best' shots for 2018 here: http://andrewallenphotography.blogspot.com/...