This thread will be regularly updated with a running total and also any good photos I get as I go along will be posted here.
I've uploaded my species list, which will be updated regularly, and can be found here: MadHatter's Big Year
With no better offers forthcoming for New Year's Eve, I decided to get an ealy night and kick things off with an early start on January 1st at one of my favorite birding spots - Bunyip State Park. I had a great morning, picking up Beautiful Firetails almost the moment I stepped out of the car, but I had neglected to ensure that my camera batteries were fully charged before heading out and by 11am it had packed it in altogether, so I don't have much to show for the day.
This first shot is not really up to my usual standard, but as this is a finch forum, I figured you'd wanna see it:
Beautiful Firetail
The only decent shot I got for the day was this Eastern Yellow Robin:
So, by 11am it was already awfully hot outdoors, and with no camera, I decided to head home and try a different site or 2 the following day. Even so, I got 53 species for the day, which I thought was pretty reasonable for a morning's work.
January 2nd was another hot one, so again I only went out for the morning, visiting the Edithvale Wetlands and Jells park and adding only 18 more species to my list.
Got some good photos for my efforts though, starting with Edithvale Wetlands:
Straw-necked Ibis:
White-plumed Honeyeaters:
Australian Reed-warbler:
Jells Park was even more disappointing than Edithvale Wetlands in terms of species diversity, but it did provide excellent opportunities to photograph some of the more common species:
Australasian Darter:
Male:
Female:
White-faced Heron:
Purple Swamphen:
Eurasian Coot:
Pacific Black Duck:
Tawny Frogmouth:
Welcome Swallows:
Which brings us up to yesterday, January 7th. Another earlyish start saw me at the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne before the gates opened. With the better part of an hour to wait I filled the time by wandering along Botanic Drive, which lies between the park boundary and adjacent farmland, and added 10 new species to my Big Year list, including 2 lifers; Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo and Golden-headed Cisticola. Apon entry into the park, I discovered to my dismay that much of the park was off-limits due to the very high fire danger. A quick turn 'round the Australian Native Gardens and up to the Trig Point Lookout (the only areas open) turned up no new species. So with nothing more to see and with dark clouds mustering on the horizon, I called it a day and was home for lunch. Still, with photo's like these, I can't really complain:
Common Bronzewing:
New Holland Honeyeater:
And, saving the best for last, Golden-headed Cisticola!:
Male (breeding plumage):
Female:
Total number of species seen to date: 82
Next weekend I have a meeting at Melbourne Zoo on the Saturday, so I will probably combine that with a look around Royal Park, then it's off to Bunyip again on the Sunday for a Helmeted Honeyeater Survey.
it's not really a birding capital but there are some nice spots.
