Ospreys are pretty rare in Victoria and it seemed almost everyone had been to see this bird so at the end of July Leigh, Leila and I went to have a look too. But the bird was a no-show and the wind was insane. Also I got sick. So yeah, not the best day out.
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| Sure it looks nice but you can't see the wind in this picture. |
Two weeks later Leigh and I made a second attempt. It wasn't so sunny but there was much less wind and as soon as we got out of the car Leigh spotted the Osprey - hooray! It was on its usual blood-stained branch with a fish.
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| Eastern Osprey |
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*nom nom*
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We arrived just before 3.00pm and about 40 minutes later the Osprey had finished its meal - tail fins and all. Great views of a beautiful bird and not too bad phonescoping results either considering the light and wind.
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| Crazy talons! |
It then had a good beak clean on the branch, turned around and took off, circling over the cliffs before disappearing. It was replaced on the dead trees by an Ibis.
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| Australian White Ibis |
After seeing what else was around at the cliffs, we went to look for the Banded Lapwings along Beach Rd. We'd both tried and failed to see them already this year so despite some rain, we headed further west, turned off at Avalon Airport and started scanning paddocks.
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| Beach Rd |
We spent a bit of time at the dam in the 'usual' paddock and saw some cool things including a Fan-tailed Cuckoo and Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo in the same tree. But no Banded Lapwings.
In fading light we turned back towards the paddock I'd seen them in another time and success! Five very distant Banded Lapwings! Scope views were not amazing and conditions for phonscoping even less amazing so here are some cows and the You Yangs:
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| The Lapwings are out there somewhere. |
It was dark and raining for the drive back to Melbourne but we'd got two out of two for the afternoon. A much more fun birding adventure this time :)
eBird lists here, here and here.
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